Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Young rugby player Joshua Merrick dies after drinking high caffeine energy ...


  • Joshua Merrick, from Manchester, did two-hour weightlifting session then went to bed in Glasgow hotel during work trip with his father 

  • Joshua was found dead in his hotel bed the next morning by a colleague

  • Andrew Merrick told the inquest his son liked Animal Rage energy drink which has high levels of caffeine and claims to boost athletes’ performance

  • Doctor told inquest she could not rule out caffeine as contributory factor

  • Joshua had an enlarged heart, possibly as a result of over-exercising

  • Coroner said he did not believe the drink played a part in Joshua’s death

  • Verdict: death by natural causes


By

Harriet Arkell



PUBLISHED:


10:00, 4 February 2014




|
UPDATED:


16:23, 4 February 2014








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    Rugby player Joshua Merrick, described by friends as


    Rugby player Joshua Merrick, described by friends as ‘the life and soul of the party’, was found dead in his hotel room aged 19


    A teenage rugby player who died in his sleep had been boosting his workouts using a high caffeine energy drink called Animal Rage, an inquest heard.


    Joshua Merrick, 19, from Manchester, had just completed an intensive fitness medical to join the Royal Navy and was on a work trip to Glasgow with his father when he was found dead in bed in a hotel room.


    Tests after his death revealed he had an enlarged heart, which could have been caused by excessive exercise, a doctor told the hearing.


    He had also been drinking the energy drink Animal Rage ahead of his workout.


    Dr Gwen Ayers, who conducted the toxicology tests, said she could not rule out the possibility that high-caffeine drinks could have contributed to Joshua’s death, but said it would depend on complications linked to his large heart.


    Joshua, who played for the senior colts team at Burnage Rugby Club in Manchester, was working for his father, an electrical engineer, to earn some money during a break between college and joining the forces.


    The inquest heard that he and his father, Andrew Merrick, booked into the Holiday Inn in Glasgow and then spent two hours lifting weights in January last year.


    Joshua seemed fine when he said goodnight to his father and went to bed, but he failed to come down to breakfast the next morning, and did not answer his father’s calls to his mobile phone. A colleague found him after knocking on his hotel room door.


    The inquest was told the apparently healthy teenager had used the high energy drinks to help ‘improve workouts and optimise focus.’


    But although tests revealed he had an enlarged heart which could have been caused by excessive exercise only a moderate dose of caffeine was found in his system and it is not thought the drink played a part in his death.


    Mr Merrick, from Didsbury, told the inquest: ‘He saw fitness as a lifestyle. The Friday before the Monday he passed away he had completed his final medical to join the Navy. He had no general health problems.


    ‘We had just finished work and said we would go to the gym together. We came out at about 10.30pm but the place where we were going to get something to eat was closed so we got a KFC.


    ‘We went back to the hotel and watched TV for 15 or 20 minutes and he said he was going back to his room.


    ‘I

    woke up in the morning and we said we would all meet up to get the

    minibus at 7.30am. I called him at 7.10am and got ready because he

    didn’t answer.


    Close family: Joshua was on a work trip to Glasgow with his father, Andrew, right, when he died suddenly


    Close family: Joshua was on a work trip to Glasgow with his father, Andrew, right, when he died suddenly



    ‘Then there was an urgent knock on the door and I opened it and a colleague said ‘You need to come with me’. We went to his room and he was dead in his bed.’


    Mr Merrick said the pair tended to ‘push each other’ in the gym, but said Joshua did not say he was struggling.


    Joshua


    Joshua’s father, Andrew Merrick, said his son had been drinking sports energy supplement Animal Rage



    He added: ‘I was concerned about him drinking high-caffeine drinks as stimulants. There was one called Animal Rage which has warnings such as “Don’t take it 14 days before surgery, no under 18s, consult your doctor before taking.”‘


    He added: ‘There’s very little if any regulation of these products from my investigations. I’m not saying it’s a cause I’m saying it’s contributory to people who have a disposition. People have extreme lows and get palpitations when they crash.


    ‘It’s new on the market, and available to everybody and rarely gets a check.’


    Mr Merrick said he was concerned about people with underlying conditions taking large amounts of stimulants.


    Dr Stephen McGrath, a consultant

    histopathologist at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said Joshua’s heart

    was 420g when it was weighed after his body was sent back to Manchester.  He compared the weight to the heart of someone in their 50s or 60s, or someone with high blood pressure.


    He added: ‘There are several reasons Josh could have had a big heart. Some people just develop it and nobody knows why.


    ‘Some

    people have a disease which makes the heart work very hard so it tends

    to get big. Also, sometimes when people do something to exercise their

    heart it responds excessively to that.’


    Joshua, seen centre right in the striped socks,was a popular player at Burnage senior colts rugby team


    Joshua, seen centre right in the striped socks,was a popular player at Burnage senior colts rugby team


    The popular teenager had taken part in an intensive fitness medical to join the Royal Navy days before he died


    The popular teenager had taken part in an intensive fitness medical to join the Royal Navy days before he died



    He said a Scottish doctor who conducted the original post-mortem weighed Josh’s

    heart at 490g, and added that anyone with a heart weight over 500g was at risk of

    ‘dropping down dead’.


    Dr Gwen Ayers, who conducted the toxicology tests, found Joshua had 5.8mg of caffeine per litre of blood in his system. Normally, people are found with between 1 and 10mg in their blood, with a lethal amount being in excess of 15mg.


    She didn’t rule out the possibility that high-caffeine drinks could have contributed to Josh’s death, but said the likelihood of their effect would depend on complications arising from his large heart.



    ‘This could be described as a parent’s worst nightmare.  To have a fit young man suddenly die is awful.’


      Manchester coroner Nigel Meadows


    Manchester Coroner Nigel Meadows described the death as ‘one of those strange things that happens on occasion with no rhyme or reason to it.’


    Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, he said: ‘The doctors have not been able to explain an identifiable cause of death so the medical cause is unascertained.


    ‘I agree that one explanation is a malfunction of the heart – the rhythm may have been disturbed.’


    He added: ‘As regards this issue about stimulant drinking, I agree that in some circumstances there maybe something in it but in this particular case I can’t see it’s played a part in his death.


    ‘This could be described as a parent’s worst nightmare. To have a fit young man suddenly die is awful.’


    Mikey Stopford, 20, captain of the Burnage senior colts team, said: ‘Joshua had such a strong character. He was the life and soul of the party and always the first one to go to the bar and have the drinks lined up.


    ‘Everyone loved him and it was a privilege to be around him.


    Animal Rage contains caffeine, green tea extract, guarana, and coffee bean extract, as well as high levels of Vitamin B12, Niacin, and amino acids.  It claims to give athletes ‘increased endurance, improved workouts, competitive strength and optimised focus’.


    Athletes are advised only to drink one pack a day and 45 minutes prior to a training session.



    ENERGY DRINKS - MIRACLE SUPPLEMENT OR POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS?



    Energy drinks high in caffeine change the way the heart beats and could increase the risk of potentially fatal heart arrhythmia, researchers warned


    Energy drinks high in caffeine change the way the heart beats and could increase the risk of potentially fatal heart arrhythmia, researchers warned


    Despite being popular with athletes looking for a training boost, energy drinks high in caffeine can have adverse effects on the body, scientists say.


    Last month researchers warned that the high caffeine drinks can change

    the way the heart beats, and could increase the risk of potentially fatal

    heart rhythm problems.


    Healthy adults who consumed the drinks had significantly increased heart contraction rates one hour later.


    This means that the

    chamber of the heart that pumps blood around the body – the left

    ventricle – was contracting harder an hour after the energy drink.


    The German researchers examined the effect of drinks high in caffeine and taurine – such as Red Bull-type drinks – on 18 healthy adults with an average age of 27.5 years.


    Each of the volunteers underwent MRI scan of the heart before and one hour after

    consuming an energy drink containing taurine (400 mg/100 ml) and

    caffeine (32 mg/100 ml).


    After the drink, these people had ‘significantly increased peak strain’ and contractility in the left ventricle of the heart – the part which receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and

    pumps it to the aorta, which distributes it throughout the rest of the

    body.


    ‘Until now, we haven’t known exactly what effect these energy drinks have

    on the function of the heart,’ said Dr Jonas Dörner, of the

    cardiovascular imaging section at the University of Bonn, Germany. 


    ‘Usually they contain taurine and caffeine as their main

    pharmacological ingredients and the amount of caffeine

    is up to three times higher than in other caffeinated beverages like

    coffee or cola.


    ‘There are many side effects known to be associated with a high intake of caffeine, including rapid heart rate, palpitations, rise in blood pressure and, in the most severe cases, seizures and death.’









    Comments (37)


    Share what you think



    The comments below have been moderated in advance.





    ste,


    notts, United Kingdom,


    9 hours ago


    So it actually had nothing todo with the energy drink…..another great article DM





    bluemoons1,


    Manchester, United Kingdom,


    9 hours ago


    He came from a lovely family, they are well known in the area for all the right reasons they have done a lot of fund raising since Josh died so very sad.





    stevehtid,


    swindon, United Kingdom,


    9 hours ago


    i can never sleep after having a energy drink. must not be that strong.





    luke,


    dorset,


    9 hours ago


    the coroner said he did not believe the energy drink had anything to do with it and that josh had developed a large heart through heavy exercise and died of natural causes.. why scare monger and bring energy drinks into the title? oh yeah that’s right so people click on the article. RIP Josh.





    Kernkraft,


    Winchester,


    9 hours ago


    What’s the story here? No proved caffeine poisoning, oversized heart, natural cause.





    JB,


    Teesside, United Kingdom,


    9 hours ago


    damn shame





    robdude,


    London, United Kingdom,


    9 hours ago


    Incredibly sad. A young, fit, hardworking young man. A similar thing happened to a boy at my son’s school. It appears that a heart abnormality occurs in small percentage of people (Fabrice Mwamba) and a heart check detects the enlarge heart.





    JadedByPolitics,


    Fairfax, United States,


    9 hours ago


    The story says it was an enlarged heart, NOT the drink and yet your headline hits the drink. You don’t like the caffeine drinks fine, say so, but don’t destroy them with a lying headline.


    God Bless his family,






    Ian,


    Nottingham,


    9 hours ago


    Energy drinks are a total fad





    HunterJohn,


    Stockport,


    9 hours ago


    Why does the headline state he drank an energy drink when the article then states ‘Coroner said he did not believe the drink played a part in Joshua’s death’????????



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    Article source: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Rugby-Union-Crewe-amp-Nantwich-beat-weather/story-20553670-detail/story.html


    Young rugby player Joshua Merrick dies after drinking high caffeine energy ...
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