A coroner down under has found that a woman who died in 2010 did so as a result of drinking too much Coca Cola.
Natasha Harris, a mother of eight, drank up to ten litres of Coke every day, twice the recommended daily limit of caffeine and almost 1kg of sugar, which is 11 times the recommended intake.
Ms. Harris’ partner Christopher Hodgkinson found the woman on a toilet seat, slumped against the wall, gasping for air three years ago. Ms. Harris then died on February 25th, aged 30.
Coca-Cola had argued that the there was no way to prove that the huge amount drank had anything to do with the woman’s death but that has now been quashed after coroner David Crerar published his report which said that the woman would not have died if she hadn’t such a dependency on Coke.
“I found that, when all of the available evidence is considered, were it not for the consumption of very large quantities of Coke by Natasha Harris, it is unlikely that she would have died when she died and how she died,” said Mr. Crerar.
Speaking about his partner’s final months, Hodgkinson said: “She had no energy and was feeling sick all the time … She would get up and vomit in the morning… She would get moody and get headaches if she didn’t have any Coke and also feel low in energy.”
It’s reported that Ms. Harris would get “withdrawal symptoms” if she didn’t have Coke to drink and often got “the shakes”.
The coroner’s report went on to say that Ms. Harris died from a multitude of causes including a racing heart and “absent teeth,” which had rotted from the vast intake of Coke. Rather disgustingly, this actually had a knock-on effect for her children’s teeth with one of her children being born with enamel.
Trying to put a positive spin on the report, Coca Cola commented that “the Coroner acknowledged that he could not be certain what caused Ms Harris’ heart attack. Therefore we are disappointed that the Coroner has chosen to focus on the combination of Ms Harris’ excessive consumption of Coca-Cola, together with other health and lifestyle factors, as the probable cause of her death.”
“This is contrary to the evidence that showed the experts could not agree on the most likely cause,” the company went on to say.
Not to sound too harsh on Ms. Harris or her family and friends, but there should have been some sort of intervention before her addiction got to a stage where there was an apparent risk to her health. I don’t think Coca Cola has many questions to answer here but more the family is at fault. They said they were not aware of any health risks as it wasn’t stated on the bottle but regardless of this, 10 litres of and liquid in a given day should have raised enough eyebrows for someone to intervene. There shouldn’t have to be a warning against drinking 10 litres, that’s just common sense, or at least I thought it was.
