Generally the so called "death" or heart attack from energy drinks, aren't caused by the energy drinks, but underlying health problems in the first place.
If something isn't well understood (either in general or by the person), people generally jump on the, oh that did it bandwagon, people do the same with vaccines and video games.
Heart problems and undiagnosed heart problems are quite common, and you're not supposed to have any form caffeine, even some stimulants when you have heart problems. If you have heart problems and drink two to three cups of coffee, obviously you may end up in the ER this happens all the time with undiagnosed heart problems.
Energy drinks themselves are generally "safe", It can trigger problems with people with undiagnosed or diagnosed heart problems as it's equal to generally two cups of coffee, high amounts of sugar can lead to diabetes or cause diabetic shock etc, too much vitamins by themselves can cause other issues.
I'll give you a good example of what I'm referring too lets say you have undiagnosed diabetes, and you get a shock from having a can of coca-cola is it the sodas fault, not really, you have a condition and anything can literally trigger it, people just like to point at whatever they drank or ate last. It's human nature.
Energy drinks and even coffee are KNOWN to cause problems with people with diagnosed or undiagnosed heart problems most people can drink them without problem just like coffee, a lot of teens drink energy drinks, so obviously a handful of people are going to drop dead from a heart condition, than parents go sue the soda company.
It's the same as you don't give alcohol to a person with liver failure or kidney failure, most healthy adults can consume safely consume 400-500 MGs of caffeine, though that most likely will kill someone with heart problems, just like certain medication etc.
The problem with the news is they often leave out valuable information, and generally jump on the "oh that did it" bandwagon, you never see people do that with coffee.
There safe for most people, and tons of people drink them daily, but that being said there not that healthy.
Plus it's quite easy to overdose on caffeine, and caffeine overdose can kill you, but the same can go with coffee, caffeine pills or caffeine powder, energy drinks are just the scapegoat.
Lets say this, if someone is overweight, eats KFC every single day 3 times a day, than dies randomly after drinking a energy drink, it must be the energy drink (that's how the news works)
Someone shoots up a school (they blame it on video games, or the parents, or mental illness)
Someone dies from caffeine intoxication, from energy drinks, they blame the energy drinks without realizing anything with caffeine can do the exact same thing.
I'll give another example, I knew a girl who had incurable brain stem cancer, there parents blamed it on all kinds of things, the microwave, television, the school etc.
Caffeine can trigger all kinds of problems, that includes coffee, soda, chocolate bars etc, people just blame the energy drinks without a second thought into the matter.
http://nypost.com/2017/01/15/monster-energy-drinks-killed-my-son-dad/
According to TMZ, the lawsuit claims Hood died of cardiac arrythmia triggered by excess caffeine consumption.
It's not too uncommon for caffeine to trigger problems in those with health problems, heart problems etc, if you drink 3-4 cups of coffee a day, chances of a energy drink killing you are slim.
Teenagers are more likely to drink energy drinks, or soda because they hate the taste of coffee, a lot of people can have heart problems and not know.
