Reye's syndrome: a medical mystery.

Six years ago, recalls John Freudenberger of Br-yan, Ohio, his 5-year-old daughter Tiffini was recovering from chicken pox. On a Thursday night, the Bryan, Ohio girl began vomiting. The next morning, Tiffini's mother noticed that the child was not acting right. She was disoriented, her eyes wandered. Becoming alarmed, Terri Freudenberger telephoned her daughter's pediatrician, who prescribed some medicine to stop Tiffini from vomiting. But the medicine did not help and as the day wore on Tiffini became increasingly lethargic and unresponsive. Finally, the doctor agreed to see her, whereupon he admitted her to a community hospital. The doctors there tentatively diagnosed her as having Reye's syndrome, a potentially deadly disease of children. She was transferred that night to a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, but, says her father, "nothing could reverse what was happening." Tiffini went into a coma and died Sunday morning. The Freudenbergers had to drive for 3'/2 hours to return to their home in Bryan. "We were mad," says John Freudenberger, "because Reye's syndrome had killed Tiffini and we didn't know anything about Reye's." There are some tragedies parents know about and can more or less accept, he believes. A child could be hit by a car, for example. But Reye's syndrome? Their own experience led the Freudenbergers to start the National Reye's Syndrome Foundation in the hope of spurring research on the disease and of educating parents and doctors about it. Unfortunately, the current state of knowledge about Reye's syndrome is all too aptly summarized on the cover of a flier put out by the foundation. It says, "Reye's Syndrome, Medical Mystery. A lethal children's disease. Cause and cure unknown." What has happened in the years since Tiffini Freudenberger died is that parents and physicians have become increasingly aware of and on the alert for Reye's syndrome. The foundation has sent speakers to schools and distributed information on Reye's, and the disease has received a great deal of publicity in the media. This year, there have been re-