Natasha Marie Harris, a mother of eight children and a fanatic for Coca-Cola, died suddenly in her home in Invercargill, New Zealand.

The reason, an inquest has heard Wednesday, was because she consumed too much Coke.

According to Harris’s partner Christopher Hodgkinson, “she drank at least 10 litres a day” for the past seven or eight years.

The family bought four 2.5 litres of Coke daily, which Harris drank during the course of the day.

Investigations of the death showed that Harris had consumed an average of seven litres of Coke a day.

Mr Hodgkinson told the court that she had been unwell up to a year before her death which occured February 25, 2010, including vomiting six times a week, but they had initially believed it was caused by the stress of looking after her eight children and gynecological problems.

An autopsy showed Miss Harris had a diseased liver but the cause of death was undetermined.

Medical evidence stated that the main finding of death was from a cardiac arrhythmia.

Dr Dan Mornin told the court Miss Harris probably had severe hypokalemia, a lack of potassium in the blood, relating to excessive consumption of soft-drink.
He said although it was difficult to confirm this from postmortem tests, it was consistent with her symptoms of tiredness and lack of strength and other cases of heavy soft-drink consumers.

He added it was likely the vomiting was due to too much caffeine, medically known as caffeine toxicity.

The inquest is yet to be continued. 


By Sim Guk-by
Intern Reporter

(simgukby@heraldcorp.com)