Legacy Matters
New Zealand mother of eight, 30, who drank 18 PINTS of Coke a day, dies from cardiac arrest
A mother-of-eight, 30, died suddenly from a cardiac arrest because she drank up to 18 pints of Coke every day for years, a coroner has ruled. Natasha Harris died on February 25, 2010, after her partner Christopher Hodgkinson found her seated on the toilet, slumped against the wall and gasping for air at their home in Invercargill on New Zealand's south island.
An inquest last year revealed that she would drink at least four 2.5 litre bottles of the fizzy drink each day, consuming more than twice the recommended daily caffeine consumption and more than 11 times the recommended sugar intake.
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The coroner's report revealed Ms Harris suffered from a myriad of medical conditions, including a racing heart and 'absent teeth', which her family say was caused from Coke consumption.
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An autopsy showed Miss Harris had a diseased liver.Medical evidence stated that the main finding of death was from a cardiac arrhythmia.
Dr Dan Mornin told the court Miss Harris probably had severe hypokalemia, a lack of potassium in the blood, relating to excessive consumption of soft-drink. He said although it was difficult to confirm this from postmortem tests, it was consistent with her symptoms of tiredness and lack of strength and other cases of heavy soft-drink consumers
It wasn't the cola. She could have drunk the same amount of Sprite or Mountain Dew with the same result. Anyone who consumes that much sugar-- more than 11 times the recommended sugar intake - day after day, year after year, so much so that her teeth fell out, is seriously damaging her body.
