Back in '92 when I was 9, I hurt my back, and had to go to the hospital. The brilliant doctors there decided it would be a good idea to give me lots of asprin. Adult strength. As you probably guessed from the title, a little while later, I developed Reye’s Syndrome. I only remember waking up in the emergency room, then waking up in the ambulance, then once again waking up in another hospital, and being strapped down to the bed. The next time I woke up, I was unrestrained, and it was a week later from the time I was in the emergency room. I slowly gathered what had happend to me, and learned more about the disease. I was in the hospital for another week fully recovering, but eventually got home and caught up on a ton of schoolwork. For about a year I had to go back for tests, making sure I wasn’t brain damaged, but it was definitely a very bad experience for my whole family. Apparently I’m very lucky to still be alive and fully functional. If anyone else has a similar experience with this disease, it would be interesting to read your story.
Shouldn’t doctors know not to give kids asprin?
You’d think so, with the disease being extremely deadly, and seeing that the number of cases went from 555 in '80 to no more than 36 in '84, it looks like the word was already out by '92…but I guess the docs figured “Pfft…what are the chances anything will happen?”
I knew a girl that had had Reye’s syndrome back in '82. She wasn’t as lucky. She did die from it. We were all wondering what happened to her, because we couldn’t understand. That was when it wasn’t known that aspirin could be fatal to kids. It was horrible she was such a beautiful kid. 
Since at least the bicentennial, the FDA has said children who are vomiting and have a virus should not take acetaminophen (Tylenol in the US, Paracetamol across the pond), salicylates (aspirin), and antiemetics (no-puke drugs) to avoid Reye syndrome. Especially aspirin.
Hard to imagine what a poor parent is supposed to do for a sick kid.
No acetominophen? I hadn’t heard that one, from anyone! I heard no ibuprofen or aspirin, but acetominophen isn’t related to the aspirin family so that was always the medication of choice amongst all the doctors we dealt with.
Do you have a cite for that? I’m not being argumentative, just genuinely curious!
I’m with Mama Tiger on this, as I took acetominophen for years after The Incident, with no complications.