THE heartbroken parents of an Ivy League student who died last year found a clue that allegedly linked her death to Panera Bread’s Charged Lemonade, their lawyer has said.

Sarah Katz’s family filed a lawsuit against the restaurant on Monday after she allegedly consumed 390mg of caffeine by accident and entered cardiac arrest hours later.

Katz, a student and research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, collapsed at a friend’s birthday dinner on September 10, 2023.

Hours earlier, she had been at Panera Bread enjoying unlimited beverages with a new SIP Club Membership, her family’s attorney Elizabeth Crawford exclusively told The U.S. Sun.

The monthly subscription gives customers free coffee, teas, or Charged Lemonades of any size and with as many refills as they want.

“She went and bought a Charged Lemonade and they come in two sizes – 20 ounces and 30 ounces,” Crawford said.

“The 30-ounce is the one they give you with the SIP membership, and this particular size has 390 milligrams of caffeine.

“Just so we understand, that amount of caffeine is more than a Red Bull and a Monster energy drink combined.”

Under normal circumstances, this amount of caffeine could cause someone anxiety or heart palpitations, as the FDA warns that 400mg of caffeine a day could have negative consequences.

But for Sarah, this decision was allegedly life or death.

The student suffered from a heart condition called long QT syndrome type 1 and was instructed by her doctor to avoid energy drinks, the lawsuit seen by The U.S. Sun says.

According to Crawford, Sarah was meticulous about her diet, and made sure to take her medicine regularly and schedule visits with cardiologists.

“All of her cardiac appointments were normal. She wasn’t doing anything excessive as far as exercise,” Crawford told The U.S. Sun.

“Everything else was status quo.

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“The only change was that she drank this lemonade.”

After Sarah’s death, Crawford claims that her parents put the pieces together when they saw a credit card charge for the drink subscriptions.

This combined with her roommate’s story of what happened on September 10 made them wonder whether Sarah knew that what she was drinking packed more of a punch than most energy drinks.

“She was very particular about what she put in her body,” Crawford said.

“And there’s no way that she would have drank this drink had she known that it was an energy drink.

“That’s not the way that it was advertised.

“And ultimately because of that hidden danger, she lost her life.”

‘HIDDEN DANGER’

According to Crawford, an energy drink is any beverage that has additional stimulants other than caffeine.

Panera’s Charged Lemonade contains guarana, which has about twice the concentration of caffeine as coffee, and plenty of sugar.

“What they say on their label and in their store is that it’s plant-based and clean – as much caffeine as a dark roast coffee,” Crawford claimed to The U.S. Sun.

But Crawford pointed out that the 20oz dark roast, which is the largest size, is nowhere near the hundreds of milligrams of caffeine found in the large lemonade.

“So that is not accurate,” she alleged.

In the wrongful death civil suit, Crawford and her team allege that Panera was aware of the serious harm that could be caused by the drink and are asking for compensatory damages if the court sides with them.

She said that Sarah’s parents hope their story will save the lives of others.

When Sarah wasn’t studying at UPenn, she was volunteering in underserved communities to teach them CPR measures.

“One of Sarah’s favorite quotes was, ‘When you save one life, you save the world,'” Crawford said.

“And that’s essentially what the family’s objective is – to make the public aware and to prevent this same situation from happening to someone else, someone else’s child, someone else’s loved one.”

The U.S. Sun has contacted Panera Bread for comment.