Surviving Reye's Syndrome

     Through the help of my mom I was able to write this blog as I only remembered bits and pieces of what happened due to me being of a young age. 

     The year was 1980.  I was 3 and a half years old.  The flu had wrapped its wicked claws around my body and took hold of me.  My fever ran high.  My mom took me to see my doctor for some help.  He told her to keep me cool and that it was okay for me to take baby aspirin.  So my mom took me home and did just that.  Little did she know, and how the doctor was unaware at the time, that giving an aspirin was the worst thing they could do. 

     Soon my flu took a spin for the worst.  I was vomiting more.  My fever was growing.  I became real lethargic and confused.  I even started to hallucinate.  My mom told me that I would sit up and hold an ice cream cone and lick it.  Only I wasn't really holding onto an ice cream cone.  I asked her how she knew that I wasn't play pretending since I was young.  She said that my actions indicated that I truely thought I was really holding on to the cone and licking it.  It wasn't a normal pretend.  As a mom you just know these things.  I also started to talk about things that didn't make sense.  She said she knew then that something was not right with me and took me to the emergency room.

     It was then that the emergency room admitted me to Saginaw General Hospital for having Reye's Syndrome.  Not a whole lot was known about Reye's Syndrome except it can be fatal and there isn't a cure for it.  Some children lived and others did not.  It was a cruel lottery of fate.   In that year, 555 cases were reported in the United States, with me being one of them.  It was a rare, fatal, serious phenomenon.  "The mean mortality rate of Reye’s syndrome is approximately 40% and appears to be higher in males than in females."  (Luscombe FA, Monto AS, Baublis JV. Mortality due to Reye’s syndrome in Michigan: distribution and longitudinal trends. J Infect Dis. 1980;142:363-371.)

At the worst of it all I was thankfully to be at a stage 2.

     I don't remember much.  I remember my bed was on the left side of the room when you enter the door.  My mom confirmed that when we recently talked about it and was impressed that I remembered that.  I recall the nurses giving me an IV and how I wiggled and screamed because I didn't want it.  One part I remember vividly.  A lady nurse came in and asked if I wanted to take a walk around the halls.  I told her sure.  She asked if I wanted to use the crutches or wheelchair.  I really wanted to do both but I picked the wheelchair.  She wheeled me to the nurses station where I was able to pick out a stuffed animal.  I picked something that looked like a cross between a dog and a fish and it was really unattractive.  I must of fallen asleep or passed out because I don't remember going back to the hospital room or getting into the bed.   To this day I still have the ugly looking stuffed animal.  



The stuffed animal I received at the nurses station at Saginaw General Hospital.



     I guess God has big plans for me on Earth because he didn't call me home.  About a week later I was discharged from the hospital and the outlook was good for me.  As a child I could only do what my body was able to do.  As I put myself in my mom's shoes, not knowing if I was going to walk out of the hospital or be carried out must of been horrific.  

      "From 1994 until 1997, identified cases in the U.S. were fewer than two per year."  (Belay ED, Bresee JS, Holman RC, et al. Reye’s syndrome in the United States from 1981 through 1997. N Engl J Med. 1999;340:1377-1382.)  The main reason in the drop of Reye's Syndrome is the awareness of not giving aspirin to baby's and young children.  In 1982, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory against giving out aspirin (or Salicylates) to young children.  Finally in 1986 the FDA required warning labels on all aspirin containing medications. 

     Studies have found that majority of Reye's Syndrome cases had a viral illness, like an upper respiratory infection or chicken pox, and were given an aspirin product.  There is some reaction between the aspirin product and a virus that turns it into Reye's Syndrome.  Symptoms for Reye's Syndrome will usually start to appear around 10 days after an illness.  A few cases are still reported each year but not like it was back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. 

     Aspirin, or Salicylates, can be transferred in breastmilk so women who are nursing small babies should avoid aspirin products.  Other products to avoid for small children or if you nurse that contain aspirin are Pepto-Bismol, Alka-Seltzer, Pamprin, Excedrin, Kaopectate and Maalox.  Just becareful what you put into your body.  In my life the doctor told my mom to give me baby aspirin to help out my aches and pains of the common flu.  That aspirin could of been the end of me.