Hypothetical re: a lawsuit

Suppose you take a particular energy drink prior to your Friday workout every week. For months everything worked well and you got the energy boost the product promises. But then one Friday you take it like normal and within a half hour your heart is racing, you're struggling for breath, your hands go numb and the fitness center where you work out has to call an ambulance. Within about two hours you're fine and the ER doc surmises that you simply had an adverse reaction to the drink.

Is this grounds for a lawsuit against the drinkmaker? Certainly this isn't worth millions, but I wonder if the drinkmaker could be made to pay the resulting medical bills?

 

A good attorney could get money from the gym, too, for having machines that led to too strenuous of a workout.

 

Shouldn't you post that here: http://community.lawyers.com/forums/general-personal-injury/forum.aspx

 

It seems to me it would be hard to prove that your reaction was caused by the drink, and the drink alone.

 

Only if you can prove that it was the drink that caused your reaction.

 

How would you know that something else did not cause? Seems like it would be easy to create reasonable doubt.

Seems like quickest way to find out would be to do some research and see if there are any precedents.

 

I did a quick google and didn't find anything that wasn't about hydroxycut. I just thought there were a few lawyers who posted here who could tell me if it would be a waste of time.

 

He doesn't need to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, just a preponderance of the evidence, right?

The biggest thing against him here, I would think, would be that he drank the drink before workouts for months without a problem before anything adverse happened.

 

Found something on it. I'd say that your friend was lucky after reading this:

http://www.attorneyatlaw.com/2009/05/hydroxycut-maker-named-in-class-action-lawsuits/

 

Let me try to think of the questions the defense lawyer will ask you:

What were the conditions in the gym? What was the temperature? Was that temperature similar to other days you worked out? What time was it when you worked out? Was this the same time you normally worked out? Were there windows in the gym? Were they open? What kind of clothing were you wearing? Was this clothing restricitive? What had you eaten in the last 24 hours? Was this the same food you had eaten prior to previous workouts? What workout were you attempting? Did this differ from your previous routine? Do you suffer from any types of medical conditions? Do you take any medicine?

 

Did you happen across the Politics board before your workout?

 

You have no actual damages. You have no way to prove a connection to the product. Legally, you have nothing.