PHOENIX (KSAZ) – A 16-year-old Arizona girl is dead after suffering a heart attack while vacationing in Rocky Point, Mexico. It's rare for someone so young to die of a heart attack, but authorities say it's what the teen drank in the hours leading up to her death that has some concerned.
Heartbroken and stunned, the friends of Lanna Hamann cannot believe that the healthy and athletic teen died of cardiac arrest.
"I learned from her every day, it's like, I'm not ready to say her name in the past tense, and I don't know if I will, she still lives with me and always will," said a friend.
Friends say Lanna's mom was told her daughter had consumed several energy drinks while on the beach at Rocky Point with family friends on Saturday.
Later in the day she said she didn't feel well and was having problems breathing. She went to a clinic, but they couldn't save her, they say she died of cardiac arrest.
Friends say she was the sweetest, funniest person, loved by everyone, they also mentioned her love of energy drinks.
"She just loved her Red Bull," said a friend.
Cardiologist Jack Wolfson said the likely culprit in this case was high levels of caffeine and sugar in energy drinks.
"There is medical evidence that these things do harm, they can cause changes in the heart rhythm, and impact blood pressure," he said.
Wolfson said that, simply put, energy drinks are not safe.
"These drinks should be regulated as alcohol is, no one under the age of 21 should be allowed to have these drinks," said Wolfson.
Hamann's family has been told it will take $13,000 to transport her body back to Arizona. They are accepting donations at http://www.gofundme.com/aevw30
For more Arizona news go to fox10phoenix.com.
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