COLUMBIA, S.C. >> A coroner says a 16-year-old South Carolina high school student had an otherwise healthy heart before he died from heart problems linked to drinking too much caffeine.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said in a phone interview Monday that Davis Cripe had no pre-existing heart condition that might have caused him to collapse and die in a classroom last month.

Watts says Cripe drank a large Mountain Dew, a latte from McDonald’s and an energy drink in the two hours before his heart fell out of rhythm at Spring Hill High School near Chapin on April 26.

Watts says parents need to know that while a soda or a cup of coffee is OK, large amounts of caffeine can be deadly.

Cripe’s father says he was a good son who would never touch alcohol or drugs and he hopes the teen’s death will save other lives by showing the dangers of excessive caffeine.