Woman Says Stranger On TikTok Helped Save Her Life After Dangerous Medical Misdiagnosis

It is far too common for women's health concerns to be dismissed in the United States, especially when it comes to chronic conditions and pain levels.

Diagnosed with several chronic conditions, 23-year-old TikToker Tori Mosser reflected on years of painful stomach cramps and painful episodes when she finally was able to share that she'd received a diagnosis: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS).

In follow-up videos, Mosser detailed her symptoms and her observations upon receiving her diagnosis and starting to receive treatment.

During that series of videos, a fellow TikToker named Ella reached out to Mosser, cautioning her that she thought Mosser might not have CVS at all, but something much more serious and medically dangerous: Cchronic appendicitis.

Mosser brought the possibility up to her doctors, who at first dismissed her. It was only when she ended up in such severe pain for more than 48 hours that she went to the Emergency Room, where another scan was done, and chronic appendicitis was confirmed.

Mosser was then rushed into emergency surgery to remove her appendix.

Mosser reflected:

"Honestly, I was in so much pain, I didn't care what they did."

"Then when I woke up from surgery, the stomach pain was completely gone."

In a TikTok video, Tori Mosser featured herself in a hospital room with multiple machines measuring her vitals. Over the course of the video, she visibly goes from looking shocked to appearing close to tears.

In a text overlay, Mosser wrote:

"To the one random woman on TikTok who reached out to me and warned me that I might have a different, more serious diagnosis: You were right."

In the caption, Mosser wrote:

"Ella, you are the BEST and possibly saved my life."

@torimosser/TikTok

Later, Ella commented on the video, happy that she'd been able to help Mosser, so Mosser updated her caption:

"Ella reached out and warned me that my 'worsening CVS' could be chronic appendicitis instead."

"As of right now, that is deemed true by the doctors, and they removed my appendix."

You can watch Mosser's TikTok here:

Fellow TikTokers were relieved for Mosser, grateful to Ella for reaching out, and shared experiences of other TikTokers helping them in similar ways.

@torimosser/TikTok

@torimosser/TikTok

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While it's easy to dismiss a social media platform and people's sharing of information on it, that's exactly what its power is: sharing information with people who didn't have access to it before, and giving them the opportunity to ask questions they didn't know they had.

If Ella hadn't reached out to Tori, she would have had a very different outcome from the diagnosis that her doctors seemed to keep missing, likely may not have treated until much later.

By reaching out to her just in case, Ella basically saved her life,—and others just might feel empowered now to do the same.