Rashly Dismissed

 Despite a troubling collection of symptoms, doctors sent her home

- Sydney Loney

ESTHER ERZAH COULDN'T afford to be sick, let alone contagious. In 2021, the then 46-year-old was running a licensed daycare out of her house in the Bronx. She also had five children of her own, ages 12 to 19, to keep safe. But on a trip to South Carolina for her eldest son's graduation in late June, she started feeling unusually weak. "I was walking around for a few hours and it was hot so I thought maybe I was just tired," Erzah says.

A few weeks and several negative Covid tests later, Erzah still wasn't feeling better. She had no energy, felt slightly feverish and was short of breath. But taking time off to see a doctor was out of the question; whatever it was, she would no longer be contagious, and too many other parents depended on her for child care. So she waited, hoping the symptoms would disappear on their own.

By August, though, the lymph nodes under her armpits had become swollen, and her head ached constantly. She also developed an eschar (a button-like sore with a black, scabby centre) on her right flank. At first, she thought it was just a pimple or a boil, but within a week, it was accompanied by a red rash. Erzah headed to the emergency room at the nearby Montefiore Hospital.

Doctors examined the abscess which can be caused by everything from burns to bedsores-and gave Erzah antibiotics to prevent infection. They told her to take acetaminophen for any pain and then sent her home.