Teen Went Into Cardiac Arrest After Drinking Panera’s Highly Caffeinated Charged Lemonade, Lawsuit Alleges

A lawyer told PEOPLE the 18-year-old's life could have been endangered "if it was not for the heroic efforts of the medical professionals”

• A lawsuit alleges that Luke Adams, 18, drank a large Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade and went into cardiac arrest hours later

• The teen later had two seizures at a hospital, the suit added

• Panera recently confirmed to PEOPLE that the Charged Lemonade beverages were removed from its menus

Panera is facing another lawsuit over its highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade beverages, which the brand recently discontinued after multiple lawsuits over the drink.

Attorneys for Pennsylvania teen Luke Adams filed a complaint on Monday, May 20, alleging that the 18-year-old went into cardiac arrest hours after drinking Panera's Charged Lemonade.

The lawsuit alleged that Adams, a high school student, purchased a large Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade, which was served to him by a Panera store employee in Monroeville, Penn.

Several hours after drinking the lemonade, per the complaint, Adams went to a see movie, and about two and a half hours in, one of his friends noticed him “making unusual sounds.” Attorneys wrote that after Adams went into cardiac arrest, two nurses and a cardiologist who happened to be attending the movie began performing CPR on him.

He was then rushed to the hospital, receiving shocks from a defibrillator en route. He later suffered two seizures, according to the suit.

Related: Panera’s Charged Lemonades Are Being Discontinued After Multiple Pending Lawsuits Related to Deaths

Attorneys for Adams included his medical notes in court documents, which state that his cardiac arrest may have been triggered by “heavy caffeine intake” and that the seizures were the result of “unclear etiology, possibly related to cardiac arrest secondary to caffeine intake from Panera Charged Lemonade.”

The suit also alleged that Adams purchased the drink without knowing “that the Charged Lemonade was a super energy drink.” The restaurant lists a large Charged Lemonade as having 237 milligrams of caffeine with ice.

PEOPLE has reached out to Panera for comment.

“Luke Adams’ case is a tragic example of why the Panera Charged Lemonade is an inherently dangerous product and needed to be removed from the market," a lawyer for Adams told PEOPLE in a statement, echoing claims made in the complaint. “Clearly, the product's ‘warning’ was ineffective. Luke was a healthy 18-year-old with no underlying medical conditions before he drank one large Panera Charged Lemonade and went into cardiac arrest.”

Related: Panera Customer Goes Viral After Realizing Their Lemonade Contains More Caffeine Than 4 Espressos

Since being introduced to the Panera menu, the energy drink lemonade has been implicated in a number of accidents and deaths.

In October, the parents of 21-year-old Sarah Katz sued the restaurant chain, claiming that the highly caffeinated beverage played a role in her September 2022 death.

The teenager was diagnosed with Long QT Type 1 Syndrome when she was 5 years old and allegedly purchased Panera's Charged Lemonade “reasonably confident it was a traditional lemonade and/or electrolyte sports drink containing a reasonable amount of caffeine safe for her to drink.”

While some Panera locations responded to Katz's death by putting up warnings about the amount of caffeine in the drink near its dispensers, the food chain faced more legal troubles in December 2023, when the family of 46-year-old Florida resident Dennis Brown sued Panera claiming that his October 2023 death occurred he consumed three cups of the Charged Lemonade.

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In January 2024, Lauren Skerritt, a 28-year-old athlete and occupational therapist, filed a complaint against the restaurant claiming that the Charged Lemonade caused her to have “permanent cardiac injuries” despite having “no underlying medical conditions."

That same month, Panera removed the Charged Lemonade's self-serve fountains from some of its locations.

In May 2024, Panera confirmed to PEOPLE that the drink was permanently removed from menus, citing a “recent menu transformation.”

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