A family in Las Vegas on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the local company that bottles Real Water, the same day the Food and Drug Administration announced an investigation into a possible outbreak of hepatitis related to the product.
According to the agency’s announcement, the FDA was notified late last week of five cases of acute non-viral hepatitis, causing liver failure. Six more people, including three children, reported less severe symptoms, such as vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite and fatigue.
“To date, the consumption of ‘Real Water’ alkaline water has been found to be the only common link identified between all the cases,” reads a news release from the Southern Nevada Health District.
Three members of the Wren family, who had the water delivered to their home, filed a civil complaint in Clark County on Tuesday afternoon.
Late last year, parents Emely and Christopher Brian Wren and their 2-year-old son, Christopher Noah, contracted health problems after drinking the water. According to attorney Will Kemp, who represents the family, the couple’s daughter avoided drinking the water and did not fall ill.
In November, the boy was taken by emergency plane to Salt Lake City Primary Children’s Hospital after doctors at Summerlin Children’s Hospital noticed signs of liver dysfunction, the lawsuit said. The child was treated and discharged from the hospital.
Around the same time, Emely Wren reportedly suffered from severe nausea and fatigue.
The boy’s father was hospitalized in Las Vegas for several days after showing extremely high levels of alanine transaminase, or ALT, an enzyme found in the liver that is released into the bloodstream after liver damage.
According to the lawsuit, Christopher Brian Wren was questioned by a Southern Nevada health district investigator and it was said that Real Water was believed to be the cause of his liver damage.
The company behind Real Water, Affinitylifestyles.com Inc., has been based in Las Vegas since 1998. The blue colored bottles call the product ‘alkaline water with negative ions’ and ‘the healthiest drinking water available’.
Officials at the company could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The lawsuit alleges that labeling on the water bottles was ‘false and / or misleading’ and that the Wrens bought it because they ‘believed it did not contain elevated levels of toxins’.
“The accused’s bottled water was deficient and unreasonably dangerous in that defendants did not give warnings about the increased levels of toxins in their products,” the document reads.
The lawsuit also alleges breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, negligence and breach of Nevada’s misleading commercial laws.
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