Lab Experiment Accidentally Gave Students Caffeine Dose Equal To 300 Coffees
A UK university is paying the cost for a screw-up of heart-palpitating proportions after they gave two students a dosage of caffeine equivalent to3 00 cups of coffee during a botched lab experiment.
The experiment was carried out at Northumbria University faculty of Health and Life Science in March 2015. The suit recently appeared at Newcastle Crown Court, as reported by local news Sunderland Echo.
Very quickly after receiving the dose, the 20 -year-old sports science students suffered “violent” side effects, including dizziness, blurred vision, physical shake, and a rapid heartbeat. They were then admitted to intensive care for dialysis, a medical procedure used to remove waste and excess water from the blood, usually used in people for reduced kidney function. The pair remained in intensive care for several days.
Their experiment was meant to test the effect of caffeine on physical workouts. As part of the experiment, the two men drank a solution of orange juice, water, and caffeine powder. Disarray passed because the lab worked out the doses on a mobile phone calculator and theyaccidentally moved the decimal point. The university also said they previously used caffeine tablets for these kinds of experimentations, but switched to pure caffeine powder over the past fewyears.
The blunder meant the students were dosed up with 30.7 and 32 grams( 1 and 1.1 ounces) of caffeine each, instead of 0.3 grams( 0.01 ounces ). For view, a typical coffee-shop brew contains around 0.1 grams( 0.003 ounces) of caffeine and people have previously died as a result of having as little as 18 grams( 0.6 ounces ).
Northumbria University told the court it was deeply, genuinely sorry and had to dish up 400,000 ($ 504,100) to the students in compensation for the highly unpleasant and “life-threatening” experience.
The two men both suffered weight loss following the mess-up and one of them reported short-term memory loss. Thankfully, theyre now back to a healthy state again.
During recent years, theres been a rise of people using caffeine powder as a performance enhancement drugto stay mentally focused and sharp. This tale serves as a reminder that caffeine still shouldnt be messed with, even though it is theworlds favorite psychoactive drug,
Lab Experiment Accidentally Gave Students Caffeine Dose Equal To 300 Coffees
Lab Experiment Accidentally Gave Students Caffeine Dose Equal To 300 Coffees
Lab Experiment Accidentally Gave Students Caffeine Dose Equal To 300 Coffees
Lab Experiment Accidentally Gave Students Caffeine Dose Equal To 300 Coffees
Lab Experiment Accidentally Gave Students Caffeine Dose Equal To 300 Coffees