Be careful with energy drinks, this may happen to you.

[whm1974]

Found this shocking news on Yahoo news:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/energy-drinks-leave-father-hole-193750787.html

A mother of one is speaking out after her husband's energy drink consumption nearly cost her family everything.



"Being pregnant is supposed to be one of the most amazing journeys you will ever embark on," Brianna wrote. "You're creating a new life. You are experiencing unconditional love for someone you have not even met. Austin and I were so excited to meet our little boy. To bring him home. To be a family."


Amid her soon-to-be growing family's bliss, Brianna said she received news from her mother-in-law that would leave her whole world "shattered within hours."


"I still remember my mother in law waking me up that morning. 'Austin had an accident' she said. All I knew was that my husband was in the hospital. The worst part? I didn't know why," Brianna wrote.


"After a two hour drive to the hospital, I learned that my husband, the father of my child, the person I am so deeply in love with, had had a brain hemorrhage. Why? The doctors concluded (after running his tox screen and ruling out drugs) that this horrible event was due to his recent excessive energy drink consumption (a habit he had built when he started working longer hours and commuting)."


Before the family could process was happening, her husband was in an operating room undergoing a life-saving procedure.


"Surgery was already in motion... and after an agonizing 5 hour wait, we got to see him. But while everyone was focused on the almost unrecognizable face hooked up to all sorts of machines and tubes, all I could see was his parents. I saw the light leave his mother's eyes as she saw her motionless son laying in that hospital bed. I saw his father break down crying as he held onto his wife. They didn't know if the life they created together would even wake up. Watching this family- my new family, who I have grown to love and be a part of, be so shattered and broken...that is the worst feeling I have ever felt."


The next day, Brianna said her husband was already undergoing his second round of brain surgery.


"Following this were strokes, seizures, swelling, and more things we weren't prepared for," she wrote. "There was a moment, sitting by his hospital bed, just praying he would be okay, that I knew I would never give up on him. No matter how messy our life would become. I was going to be by his side through all of it. After two weeks of living in a hospital, wondering if he would survive or be taken from us, we made our way back home. The time had come for me to deliver our baby."


"I'm not going to lie to anyone, it was so hard. I had planned on Austin being a part of this huge moment," Brianna continued in her emotional post. "Being by my side. Holding my hand. Being there to cut the cord. Being there to welcome our son into the world. It didn't feel right... But a beautiful miracle happened as I delivered our son. Austin woke up."


See photos of the beautiful family: " data-reactid="16">See photos of the beautiful family:


The new mom said that for about a week after her husband woke up, she was not even able to see him.


"I thought about him every day. I cried as I looked at my child who looked just like his daddy," she wrote. "When the baby was only a week old, I left him with my in-laws. I knew I needed to see Austin."


"I needed to tell him that our baby was here. To tell him how much we needed him. Weeks went by. We chased him all over the state as more operations and procedures were ordered. I saw him every chance I got. At a little over 2 months old, our son finally met his dad. A day I wasn't sure I would ever see. That was the day that my heart gained some of its happiness back."


But although Austin was finally able to return home to his loving family, Brianna said the struggle did not end there.


"Our life isn't normal. There are doctors visits and hospital trips- so many that I loose count. But we are here. Fighting," she wrote. "I wake up every day to take care of our beautiful little boy and my husband. I prepare the meals, do physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. I help him with personal hygiene. I help him walk. I help him with every aspect of his life. And in between these tasks I take care of our very busy eight month old. It is hard, and I am tired, but we make the most of it. He isn't the same man I fell in love with, but I still fall further everyday, We are fighting to help him recover. To make his life better. One day we will get there. Until then, I will never give up on him. Because love is selfless, and I love him more than life itself."

Sorry for the complete news article, but links tend to disappear from Yahoo.

Anyway I'm glad I don't or very rarely drink energy drinks anymore, but I used to drink them fairly often when I was younger. Although probably not as often as this guy did. Not to make light of this person's unfortunate outcome, but I would be sure I want to survive something like this, if you had a big chunk of your brain taken out, are you still you?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm. Brain swelling. Which, I think that I had a few days ago. But when I told medical professionals, they laughed at me. Probably because I'm poor / disabled. There's a lot of real health-care prejudice out there.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I doubt the energy drinks were the cause. Many people have Aneurysms, so to blame it on an energy drink is unfounded and not scientific. At least, let's be clear: this isn't scientific "The doctors concluded (after running his tox screen and ruling out drugs) that this horrible event was due to his recent excessive energy drink consumption" Really? So you rule out a handful of known tests among a gulf of potential reasons, then decide "Yep, it was those damn energy drinks".

That said, I don't drink energy drinks, I generally look down on people who drink them, because I observe the rest of their habits are poor. They go out to eat constantly, eat junk food, etc... These people are unhealthy not as a result of those drinks, but their lifestyle. I think this is clear.

 

[Cozarkian]

What exactly is excessive energy drink consumption - 1 per day, 2, 5, 10?

 

[whm1974]

I doubt the energy drinks were the cause. Many people have Aneurysms, so to blame it on an energy drink is unfounded and not scientific. At least, let's be clear: this isn't scientific "The doctors concluded (after running his tox screen and ruling out drugs) that this horrible event was due to his recent excessive energy drink consumption" Really? So you rule out a handful of known tests among a gulf of potential reasons, then decide "Yep, it was those damn energy drinks".

That said, I don't drink energy drinks, I generally look down on people who drink them, because I observe the rest of their habits are poor. They go out to eat constantly, eat junk food, etc... These people are unhealthy not as a result of those drinks, but their lifestyle. I think this is clear.

I'm wondering if his overconsumption of energy drinks plus whatever other bad habits he may have had could trigger his Aneurysm or at least increase his chances of it happening.

I myself only drink those things if I didn't get much sleep and I need to be awake for something important.

 

[Pantlegz]

That said, I don't drink energy drinks, I generally look down on people who drink them, because I observe the rest of their habits are poor. They go out to eat constantly, eat junk food, etc... These people are unhealthy not as a result of those drinks, but their lifestyle. I think this is clear.

Huh? How are they any different from pre-workout? I don't consume either on a regular basis but I wouldn't think less of someone or assume their dietary habits based on what they're drinking. Now if you're talking about people who only drink energy drinks I may be more inclined to agree but...

 

[whm1974]

Huh? How are they any different from pre-workout? I don't consume either on a regular basis but I wouldn't think less of someone or assume their dietary habits based on what they're drinking. Now if you're talking about people who only drink energy drinks I may be more inclined to agree but...

I tend to drink a lot of diet soda, but my eating habits are fairly healthy otherwise.

 

[Crono]

Hmm. Brain swelling. Which, I think that I had a few days ago. But when I told medical professionals, they laughed at me. Probably because I'm poor / disabled. There's a lot of real health-care prejudice out there.

It's more likely to be caffeine withdrawal headaches, especially if you get them frequently.

 

[whm1974]

It's more likely to be caffeine withdrawal headaches, especially if you get them frequently.

Yeah caffeine headaches can be a killer, especially if you consume large amounts of it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow, wonder how fast he was pounding those down.

 

[whm1974]

Wow, wonder how fast he was pounding those down.

Way too many from the looks of it.

 

[vi edit]

Do you know what one of the leading causes of aneurysms is? High blood pressure. Do you know what can greatly elevate blood pressure? Stress.

From the article:

"After a two hour drive to the hospital, I learned that my husband, the father of my child, the person I am so deeply in love with, had had a brain hemorrhage. Why? The doctors concluded (after running his tox screen and ruling out drugs) that this horrible event was due to his recent excessive energy drink consumption (a habit he had built when he started working longer hours and commuting)."

Stress is a killer. Look at his other habits before you single out a controversial one.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's a good point too, if he was working constant long hours AND commuting on top of it that means he had little to no time to himself. Not only is that stressful on it's own but the job itself may also have presented stress. IMO life is too short to endure that and anyone in that situation should start finding another job. The energy drink probably helped trigger the inevitable.

 

[Ackmed]

Seems doubtful. I enjoy them anyways, drink about 3-5 a week. I know they aren't good for me, but whatever.

 

[whm1974]

That's a good point too, if he was working constant long hours AND commuting on top of it that means he had little to no time to himself. Not only is that stressful on it's own but the job itself may also have presented stress. IMO life is too short to endure that and anyone in that situation should start finding another job. The energy drink probably helped trigger the inevitable.

If he was consuming a lot of energy drinks a day, like way more then just a few, then that could a factor with him having the aneurysm.

Seems doubtful. I enjoy them anyways, drink about 3-5 a week. I know they aren't good for me, but whatever.

That still comes out less then one a day, maybe I'm just reading too much in this but I'm thinking his consumption was way more then that.

 

[vi edit]

Energy drinks are just sugar (or artificial sweetener), caffeine, and a handful of b vitamins and a few other things. There's no magical hoodoo juice there.
Compare them to coffee and on an per ounce basis, a drip coffee has considerable more caffeine in it. People drink pots of coffee a day. Are heads exploding from that?

The only big difference between an energy drink and coffee is that you can usually pound one of those in a matter of minutes. For starters, they are chilled and it's just easier to drink cold stuff faster. And second, they just taste better (to many people) than coffee and it's easy to slam them. You can get the caffeine in your body a bit faster than you would a cup of coffee you may sip over 30 minutes.

But all that being said, you have to look at underlying risks here. Maybe he had bad vascular health to begin with and when you combine that with stress your blood pressure goes up and puts a lot of stress on those unhealthy vessels. Stress does kill. Very few people have ever said that coffee does.

 

[Ackmed]

That still comes out less then one a day, maybe I'm just reading too much in this but I'm thinking his consumption was way more then that.

Oh yeah, I know. I don't drink as much as I used to. One reason is that we can't bring cans to work, only bottles for a drink. So I'd have to empty it out into a plastic bottle. While I've done it a few times, it's annoying. I don't enjoy them, usually don't drink them unless on the way to work. Wife and I get one each when driving with the family somewhere though.

When deployed to certain areas, they gave us cases and cases of "Rip It" energy drinks. I'd drink a case a week. Along with caffeine gum. Be buzzing all damn day. Terrible for me, dehydrated me, but worked.

 

[IEC]

Hmm. Brain swelling. Which, I think that I had a few days ago. But when I told medical professionals, they laughed at me. Probably because I'm poor / disabled. There's a lot of real health-care prejudice out there.

That's because brain swelling generally requires a head CT to diagnose. Jumping straight to the $$$$ imaging and "zebra" diagnosis is pretty uncommon, especially if you don't have neurological symptoms.

You are much better off calmly, politely explaining your symptoms to your physician, including when it began, how frequently and for how long it occurs, any things that make it better or worse, etc. Then let them figure out the diagnosis on the basis of the symptoms, or order imaging or lab work to rule out other diagnoses.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Huh? How are they any different from pre-workout? I don't consume either on a regular basis but I wouldn't think less of someone or assume their dietary habits based on what they're drinking. Now if you're talking about people who only drink energy drinks I may be more inclined to agree but...

Yeah, I was in a rush and didn't mean to imply that I look down on people who drink them, nor that everyone who drinks them are unhealthy in general. Poorly phrased on my part.

That said, what I meant to say was that most people I see chugging those things (2+ a day) are generally unfit and unhealthy. So while these things probably don't improve their health, I doubt they hinder it much either. I think all of their daily decisions add up to being unhealthy and that it is a lifestyle choice. As far as looking down on them, I don't mean that I am 'better than them' but that I look down on their decisions as very poor decisions on their part. While it is their body, their life, I still think their decisions to be unhealthy are both unwise, short sighted and rather ignorant.

In an extreme case, I used to work with a guy who had diabetes, hearth problems and a whole host of other issues. He drank at least 4 of those large 16oz/20oz cans of energy drinks per day!!! I kid you not... Within a week of being employed he had at least 50+ cans in his trash can. It was overflowing. That said, I don't think those energy drinks caused it, but it certainly most likely exacerbated those symptoms and made him decline further...

Ironically, my news feed on my phone provided a Snopes.Com analyses of this OP's linked a few days after I replid to this post. I find it gratifying to see that I my original opinion as far as this being unscientific and unproven was well founded.

http://www.snopes.com/energy-drink-results-in-hole-in-expectant-fathers-skull/

 

[whm1974]

OK I'm going to have starting checking Snopes.com again for fact checking and just not believe something that is in the news. Perhaps I should start reading Snopes regularly like I used to.

I'm so sorry.

In an extreme case, I used to work with a guy who had diabetes, hearth problems and a whole host of other issues. He drank at least 4 of those large 16oz/20oz cans of energy drinks per day!!! I kid you not... Within a week of being employed he had at least 50+ cans in his trash can. It was overflowing. That said, I don't think those energy drinks caused it, but it certainly most likely exacerbated those symptoms and made him decline further...
http://www.snopes.com/energy-drink-results-in-hole-in-expectant-fathers-skull/

Good grief that is a lot of energy drinks in one week, even the cheap stuff will add up to a good amount of money. That much caffiene and sugar can not be good for you.