UK official calls for adding health warning on protein drinks after a boy’s death

London: The death of a 16-year-old boy from taking a protein drink in UK sparked calls for putting health warnings on the packages of the drinks.

Rohan Godhania, who consumed a protein drink to build muscles, fell ill on August 15, 2020 and died three days later following ‘irreversible brain damage’, Metro reported.

Before identifying the cause of the death, West Middlesex Hospital donated his organs.

The protein drink was bought to the boy by his father as he was ‘quite skinny’.

The protein shake triggered in the boy a rare genetic condition called ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency.

The condition prevented the breakdown of ammonia in his blood stream, causing it to build to lethal levels.

The post-mortem examination initially could not link the cause of the death to ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, a court in Buckinghamshire previously heard.

The rare condition OTC could be triggered by a protein load, according to the report.

Now a top UK official Coroner Tom Osborne has called for putting a health warning on the packages of protein drinks.

‘Concerning these protein drinks, my preliminary view about them is that I ought to write to one of the regulatory authorities that some sort of warning ought to be put on the packaging of these drinks because, although OTC is a rare condition, it can have harmful effects if someone drinks [one] and it causes a protein spike,’ Tom Osborne was quoted as saying.