When social media saves lives

The power of social media and its ability to spread health awareness and potentially save lives never ceases to astound me.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms can be valuable tools in helping to determine when we or our loved ones require medical attention, and in some cases direct us towards life-saving treatment.

Our social media connections, or Facebook friends, can often realise we’re ill before we know it and can sooth our anxieties when we're over-reacting.

British woman Lisa Royle had not comprehended the overwhelming response to an image she posted on Facebook before undergoing a mastectomy.

She shared a personal photograph of her breast on Facebook, which revealed a subtle symptom that led to her life-saving cancer diagnosis - a measly dimple - accompanied by a timely reminder for women to check their own assets.

When we think of breast cancer, we tend to think of a lump or mass, but sometimes a cancer can present in the subtlest of ways, she warned.

The post has been shared more than 71,000 times on Facebook, helping to spread worldwide awareness and alert women to understated indicators of breast cancer - an ingenious move yet one that could save countless lives.

Her story is unique but not the first of its kind and almost certainly not the last.

Here are a few other stories about how ordinary people have been alerted to something serious and had their lives saved by the social media community.

American author Deborah Copaken Kogan credits Facebook friends for helping to diagnose her son’s mystery illness in time.

Kogan woke up on Mother’s Day to discover her four-year-old son Leo with a rash and a high fever.

She took to Facebook posting an incidental status update.

“Nothing says Happy Mother's Day quite like a Sunday morning at the pediatrician's," she wrote.

But as Leo's symptoms worsened, a high fever coupled with a swollen face, she continued to share photos and concerns to a growing community of friends and ‘friends’.

"Baby getting sicker. Eyes swollen shut. Fever rising. Penicillin not working. Might be scarlet fever. Or roseola. Or...???? Sigh,” she wrote.

After reaching out to her online network, she got a call from a friend who saw the update and bluntly urged : get to the hospital!

Two other Facebook friends, both pediatricians, also saw her status update and issued similar advice.

“As much as I wanted to be my usual mellow self, the immediacy of the Facebook feedback was enough to push me out the door,” wrote Kogan on Slate.com.

It wasn’t long before their feedback was confirmed: Leo had Kawasaki disease, a rare childhood illness that can be fatal.

The condition wreaked havoc on little Leo's heart and liver, but the outcome could have been much worse and Kogan is grateful for the instant ‘in-network’ advice and support.

First-time mum Kerry turned to a parents' group on Facebook when her toddler's ear began to drastically and uncontrollably swell.

She posted a photo of a red lump on her daughter Gracie’s head and was immediately inundated with advice from fellow mums.

They urged her to seek urgent medical help, with one mum correctly diagnosing the 21-month-old with mastoid, a bacterial infection of a bone behind the ear, which left untreated can spread to the brain, causing serious complications.

Doctors were able to diagnose Gracie and operate on her just in time.

She underwent emergency surgery to relieve pressure caused by an abscess, before it travelled to her brain.

"Thank you to all you wonderful mummies," Kerry wrote to those who had helped diagnose Gracie's severe illness and save her life.

A British toddler was diagnosed with eye cancer after a photo on Facebook revealed something was amiss.

Nicola Sharp, a 42-year-old nurse from England, was browsing through her friend Michelle's photos when she stumbled across an image that caused her concern.

In the photo, Michelle's two-year-old daughter, Grace, appeared with her eyes lit up from the flash of the camera, but she noticed that instead of the usual red-eye glint, one of the toddler’s eyes was white.

She called her friend to discuss her concern - the white reflection in Grace's eye could be a sign of something macabre - a rare cancer called retinoblastoma.

Little Grace was taken to hospital where doctors discovered two tumours behind her eyes and confirmed her diagnosis.

Michelle said her friend Nicole had helped to save her little girl's life.