Paging Dr. Facebook! Parents Get Diagnosis Via Facebook

INSIDE EDITION reports on how some people have found Facebook to be a useful tool to get medical advice.

A little boy named Leo woke up with an unexplained rash. A girl named Rylee literally had a twinkle in her eye.

Both of these symptoms turned out to be signs of serious health issues. And, in both cases, Facebook played a major role in making the diagnosis.

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When Tara and Jason Taylor posted a photo of their daughter on Facebook they didn't expect that twinkle in her left eye to lead to a dire warning that Rylee might be going blind.

Tara told INSIDE EDITION, "Within an hour I got a message from a friend saying, 'Noticed that rylee's eye is glowing, I'm sure it's nothing, but check out this link.'"

The mother took more photos of Rylee and saw the same strange glint in her eye. They rushed her to the hospital that same day.

The diagnosis? Coats disease. Without treatment Rylee would have gone blind.

"She's lost her central vision, but it was caught early enough where she does have vision still," commented Tara.

As for Leo’s mother, she didn't know what to make of the strange rash her son woke up with one morning..

“He woke up and he looked like 'The Nutty Professor.' His face was swollen beyond recognition, his eyes were tiny little slits, he had a rash all over his body,” she said.

So Deborah Copaken Kogan put a photo of Leo on Facebook and invited her friends to weigh in. A relative sent her an urgent message that it could be something called “Kawasaki disease.”

It's really important that you make sure he doesn't have this. It's a deadly disease,” the relative said.

Leo's case was caught in time. He could have suffered a heart attack. At four years old!

"Had it not been for those diligent Facebook friends it definitely would have gone on because I don't think i would have thought Kawasaki Disease," said Leo's mother.

INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander did an experiment of her own. “I wanted to see what kind of response I would get if I posted on my Facebook page about a slight twitch I have in my right eye occasionally. It's probably nothing, but I'm going to post it here and see what kind of diagnosis my friends give me.”

The response came pretty quickly. Heidi said, "Make sure you are getting enough magnesium."

And Jennifer thinks its a lack of sleep.

Now, just to state the obvious, this does not, repeat, does not substitute for an informed diagnosis from a doctor.

But for these now healthy little kids, help from Facebook came in the nick of time.