The coffee caused the girl to experience cardiac arrhythmia

May 26, 2015 11:43 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this month, a 3-year-old girl in the city of Bacolod in the Philippines passed away when her heart went haywire and started beating irregularly. 

Her family didn't let doctors perform an autopsy to establish the exact cause of death, but word has it that the young girl died because her parents would let her drink coffee and this upset her heart.

It was cardiac arrhythmia that killed the young girl

3-year-old Jesryl Barrido's death certificate points the finger at cardiac arrhythmia brought about by caffeine toxicity as the most likely cause of death.

As mentioned, medical experts were not allowed to autopsy the girl's lifeless body and, therefore, cannot say for sure which medical complications led to her demise.

What they do know is that the girl sometimes drank coffee and that, back in last year's December, her hands started shaking for no apparent reason.

“We do not have a definite diagnosis so we just consider and highly consider this [caffeine toxicity] possibility,” said Dr. Grace Tan with the Bacolod City Health Office, as cited by ABS-CBN News.

Seeing how coffee acts as a stimulant, too much of it upsets the body. Children are especially vulnerable to its negative effects on the cardiovascular and nervous system, specialists say.

The girl's parents never even suspected something was off

True, 3-year-old Jesryl Barrido had shaky hands during her first few months of life. Still, her parents insist that, other than this, she didn't display any symptoms indicating heart trouble.

Hence, they never even suspected that their daughter was sick and that she was at risk to develop severe and ultimately fatal cardiac arrhythmia.

In an interview, the 3-year-old's mother, Jennifer Rose Barrido, admitted that Jesryl Barrido would sometimes have a sip or two of coffee, but said neither she nor her husband knowingly offered it to her.

“We don't let her drink coffee but there are times when she sips from our cup when we are not looking,” the woman told the press.