Dunkin' Donuts customer sues over sweetness, claiming sugar stirred her diabetes

In a world where people sue McDonald's for serving coffee too hot, a Philadelphia woman has sued a Dunkin' Donuts for serving coffee she says was too sweet - so sweet it sent her into a diabetic coma.

Danielle Jordan, 47, of Oxford Avenue near Langdon Street in Crescentville, filed a personal-injury lawsuit against the Dunkin' Donuts on Frankford Avenue near Bridge Street and Northeast Donut Shops Management Corp.

Jordan is seeking unspecified damages for problems caused after she ordered coffee with artificial sweetener on June 15, 2009, but the server put sugar into the brew, according to the suit, which was first reported by the Courthouse News Service.

After downing the drink, Jordan contends, she suffered light-headedness, dizziness, numbness of the extremities and a diabetic shock that resulted in an emergency trip to the hospital, court papers say. As a result, she had to increase her diabetic medication and "sustained a loss of life's enjoyment" due to Dunkin' Donuts' "defective product." Jordan and her attorney, Kenneth M. Rodgers, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Leshia Evans, legal liaison who handles lawsuits for 34 Dunkin' Donuts in the Philadelphia region, said she couldn't comment on the case.

But she noted that "we encounter thousands and thousands of customers on a daily basis. We don't provide a customer with anything they don't request. If they request a medium coffee, they will get a medium coffee. If you fail to request a sugar substitute, we can't read your mind. We sell doughnuts, not crystal balls."

In Evans' 14 years in her job, she has seen more than her fair share of unusual lawsuits. She recounted one lawsuit from about three years ago, in which a woman claimed she burned her tongue on Dunkin' Donuts coffee so hot it must have been tainted by terrorists. That plaintiff lost her suit.