Caffeine overdose

34 students rushed to hospital after drinking bottled coffee

CEBU - At least 28 of the 34 students of Concord Technical Institute were already released from the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) yesterday after they have been declared out of danger.

The 34 students were taken to the city hospital after complaining of abdominal pain, heart palpitation, headache and vomiting after they had all consumed a bottled coffee drink last Wednesday.

According to the medical report of the CCMC, all the 34 students had caffeine overdose that’s why they suffered abdominal pain, heart palpitation, headache and vomiting.

In an interview with Sun.Star Cebu, Rene dela Calzada, president of Tridharma Holdings Inc., said that the company already settled the medical expenses of all the students.

Tridharma Holdings Inc. is the distributor of Kopiko 78C.

Councilor Dave Tumulak said that the remaining six students are still in CCMC since yesterday noon for further monitoring and medical tests.

Of the six students, one of them is being closely monitored by doctors after her heart beat went slower than the usual.

Last Wednesday, the 34 high school students were rushed to the hospital after they consumed bottles of promotional samples of Kopiko 78C that were offered to them for free.

According to the CCMC doctors, minors, aged 12 to 18, should only have caffeine intake of up to 70 milligram (ml) daily.

However, the Concord students reportedly consumed three to four bottles of Kopiko 78C when the free sampling was done in their school, Tumulak said.

Each bottle of Kopiko 78C contained 150 ml caffeine.

Tumulak said that the advertising agency handling the product and the school may be held liable for the incident for allowing the students to consume the product.

Nagiel Bañacia, head of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, added that the bottled coffee drink was also intended for 18 years old and above, citing the information relayed to him by the distributor.

Full stomach

It is also best to drink the product on a full stomach.

As to why it was given to the students who are aged 16 and below, Bañacia said they will find this out in the investigation.

“Along the way there was a problem in the distribution. Instead of giving it to 18 years old above, it was given to the minors,” he said.

Bañacia said the distributor of Kopiko in the country met with him yesterday and expressed its willingness to cooperate with the City Government’s investigation.

Dela Calzada said that when he learned about the incident yesterday morning, he immediately contacted Bañacia and visited the students in CCMC.

“We will also conduct a separate investigation on the matter to determine what went wrong and why these students were allowed to drink our product,” he said.

Tridharma Holdings Inc. has commissioned Youthopia Media Philippines Inc. to do the sampling of the products.

Dela Cerna said he will ask Youthopia to explain the circumstances before the incident happened.

Tumulak said Nathaniel Nuevas, project manager of Youthopia, also coordinated with him and went to the CCMC immediately after the incident last Wednesday.

The Department of Health (DOH) 7 and the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will also investigate the matter.

The health office wants to find out if the samples of bottled coffee drink caused the ailment of the students.

Rica Aumentado, head of the office of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 7, told Sun.Star Cebu that she will lead a team in visiting the school to check on the bottles of coffee drink distributed to the students.

She said her team wants to know if there are ingredients in the bottled coffee drink that could be considered not suitable for children.

Rennan Cimafranca of the DOH 7 Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu), on the other hand, said he was at the school to talk to other people who consumed the bottled coffee drink but did not fall ill.

Cimafranca said that Resu 7 is looking for other angles, including the other food that the students had consumed, before drinking the cold coffee.

CCPO Director Joel Doria, meanwhile, urged the parents to file a complaint, which will be used as a basis in conducting the investigation.

He said that the CCPO is also waiting for the laboratory results conducted on the samples of the bottled coffee drink. RVC/JKV/with reports from JOB