Riley Lubas was 20 years old in his first year, studying creative media at the University of Bath, when a common cold nearly killed him.In 2025, he felt the usual “freshers’ flu” coming on him.
Like many students, he simply went to the pharmacy and picked up cold-and-flu tablets and then a pack of 500 mg paracetamol. What Lubas didn’t realise was that both products had the same active ingredient in them. For over five days, he kept taking more than double the maximum dose recommended for adults.
What followed were excruciating stomach pains and vomiting. After calling 111, he was sent to A&E, where it was confirmed that his liver was failing. He was rushed to the specialist liver unit at King’s College Hospital in London. 
Within a few hours, Lubas was in multiple organ failure, on life support and dialysis, and at the top of the UK transplant list. Doctors told his parents the damage looked irreversible.
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Lubas’s Recovery Process
Like a miracle, Lubas’s liver began to recover on its own, and within roughly a week he was taken off life support. The real work started after that. He needed a tracheostomy to help him breathe, so he had to relearn how to speak.
After several weeks of organ failure and bed rest, which made his muscles so weak, Lubas also had to relearn how to walk. That meant physiotherapy, speech therapy and sheer determination for six weeks at King’s College Hospital. It was followed by further time in an ICU closer to his home in Newport.
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Today, Lubas is fully recovered and back working as a bartender. His parents, Chris and Kate, later walked 31 miles across the Gower Peninsula to raise money for the King’s College intensive-care unit. And secondly, to warn others about the hidden risks of combining everyday cold remedies.
Lubas’ story underscores the fact that many over-the-counter cold and flu medicines already contain paracetamol. Taking them together with plain paracetamol tablets can push someone past the safe daily limit without them noticing.
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