Few duos are quite as legendary as college students and coffee. All nighter? Coffee. 8 a.m. classes? Coffee. You get the idea. While some coffee can be good for you, the amount of caffeine these college students received during a botched university experiment was definitely way over the healthy level – and they were almost killed because of it.
The BBC reports that two British students at Northumbria University in the U.K. were rushed to the hospital after participating in a study that was investigating the effects of caffeine on exercise. Things took a turn for the worse when they were accidentally given 30 grams of caffeine by the researchers instead of the intended 0.3g. And in case you’re wondering, 30g of caffeine is equal to around 300 cups of coffee – and caffeine can be fatal at 18g.
During their hospitalization, the two students received dialysis and each lost 20 pounds during the treatment process. Luckily, both eventually recovered.
Northumbria University has been fined the equivalent of around $500,000 for the error. According to Huffington Post, the prosecutor argued that the research staff was inexperienced and had never done the experiment on their own before, which lead to the accidental overdose.
Lesson learned: all things in moderation. While we’re not exactly looking to try and attempt to drink 300 cups of coffee, let this be a gentle reminder that we should all go easy on the caffeine this semester.