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Comment by commandlinefan | Hacker News Reader

I remember a co-worker talking about this happening to her in the 90's - she went to the ER for a sudden, large rash that turned out to be a non-emergency (shingles), but she had no way to know that. AFAIK, she had to pay the whole ER bill herself because she didn't know ahead of time how serious what she had was.

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Shingles can cause blindness. Early treatment is very important. A friend of mine was hospitalised and left with bad scaring because they delayed seeking help. At least she didn't have any large bills because she was not in the US. No one should be afraid of going to the hospital.

Are there cases in which a rash is a legit emergency?

Rashes can appear in cases of allergic reactions, those can be deadly.

Yes, depending on the scenario. MRSA and other bacterial infections are good (and unfortunately too common) examples.

Yep, the gap between the point where most people would start to think a skin-infection-caused rash is bad enough that they might need help, and the point at which it's moved deeper in the body and begun to infect other tissue, can be pretty damn short, and by the time you've noticed (say) joint aches or immobility, it may be too late for simple solutions. If you've hit that point on a Saturday morning but think "well it's the weekend, I'll try to see my doctor on Monday" but then it's looking really bad by Saturday night (not implausible) and you can't get to an urgent care for whatever reason (none nearby, or just not open), you really don't want to wait until Monday to have a professional look at it. ER's not a crazy choice. If it's truly bad that's where the urgent care will probably send you, anyway.

Anaphylaxis often first shows as a rash. Toxic shock syndrome and MRSA too. Probably others.

Shingles could be one, actually. It can lead to permanent neurological issues.

That sounds like a question for a doctor.

If something happened in the middle of the night to you, where you would find a doctor in the middle of the night if not at the ER?

Just copy Italy, we have a backup for the primary care/general practitioner under the form of Guardia medica, which does the same level of triage they'd do but in night shifts

MRSA (see also 'spider bites'), meningitis, adverse reactions to a drug, Staphylococcal scaled skin syndrome (especially in infants), Stevens-Johnson syndrome (which can be a reaction to medication), toxic shock syndrome, among others.

Yup. Allergic reactions, especially to medication.

And let me tell you, that rash is absolute agony. So. Much. Freaking. Itching. I wished it was pain instead. I would have tried about anything to get it to stop. It was all over my torso, and just horrible. It is really important to get it taken care of before it gets worse - you don't want to, say, take more medicine and not be able to breathe.

The other thing that can cause a rash-like appearance is an infection, though they usually describe this as red streaks (from a cut, anyway). If this is happening on a friday night, you shouldn't wait until monday to take care of it.

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