Comic Strip’s Error Gives Creator a Dose of Reality

Rex Morgan, M.D., is giving his creator a bit of a headache.

In panels that ran Saturday and Sunday, the comic strip physician prescribed a baby aspirin for a 13-month-old boy suffering from a slight cold, telling his mother, “Don’t worry. . . . He’ll be fine!”

But it seems the good doctor, who’s been practicing medicine on the comic pages since his creation by the late psychiatrist Nick Dallis in 1948, goofed.

Woody Wilson, an Arizonan who now writes the strip, has been deluged with letters from medical professionals and concerned parents pointing out that aspirin has been linked to Reye’s syndrome, a now rare and sometimes fatal disease that attacks children and young people following viral illnesses such as influenza and chicken pox.

Wilson has apologized to Morgan’s loyal readers “for any errors in Rex’s medical judgment,” explaining that “this oversight was a lapse in our otherwise thorough editing procedures.”

While taking full responsibility, Wilson reminded readers that the comic strip’s mission is strictly to entertain and they “should never use the medical opinions or treatments illustrated in “Rex Morgan, M.D.” as a substitute for a visit to a qualified medical professional.”

Santa Monica pediatrician Marna Geisler, a faithful “Rex Morgan” reader, said, “I hope this doesn’t undo the years of effort on the part of family practitioners and pediatricians to educate parents to the dangers of giving aspirin to children,” which has resulted in a dramatic decrease in Reye’s syndrome cases.

Geisler said aspirin should not be prescribed for anyone under 16, except for juvenile arthritis, adding that the correct prescription for Dr. Morgan’s little patient would have been Tylenol.

Ted Hannah, spokesman for King Features Syndicate, which distributes the comic to 300 newspapers, including The Times, said Rex Morgan has in the past dealt with serious subjects such as child abuse and AIDS without stirring up controversy, adding that, until now, “The most important thing that’s happened to Rex” in the last year was finally marrying his nurse, June.