#1
There was a geriatric patient taking advantage of the call bell, because she was an attention seeker. She always needed really basic things to get done for her because she thought the place was a hotel (it was a rehabilitation ward, and we should try to motivate patients to do as much for themselves as possible).
She would ring the bell for reasons like "please lift the blanket up for me" or "please pass me my phone" or "please feed me" and claimed that her hands didn't work. I caught her several times lifting herself off the bed with her hands, grabbing her phone when it rang, you get the gist.
After days of saying no and that she needs to start doing things for her self, she grew more and more frustrated. Eventually she snapped, grabbed me by my collar, shook me agressively and yelled "what don't you understand about the fact that my hands don't work?!?!"
I didn't know what to tell her... I just looked at her and blinked as she slowly released her death grip off me.
I guess I healed her hands. Praise the Lord. 1 up vote = one prayer for an old ladies arthritis.
#2
So she started telling her teachers she couldn't read what was on the chalkboard. And she'd squint at home, and go incredibly close to the tv to watch things because she said she couldn't see things clearly. Her parents got worried and took her to the doctor.
She read everything wrong on the vision test. Everyone seemed convinced that she needed glasses. But the doctor was a little concerned because the tests indicated she needed really thick glasses, and usually that wasn't the case unless there was a family history of vision issues. Her parents both had 20/20 vision and her sister only had astigmatism. They all realized she was faking it.
So the doctor told her parents in front of her that she'd need some pretty intense eye surgery so she'd be able to see without glasses. They even wheeled in a machine to make it convincing to say they could do the surgery right then and there.
She freaked out, confessed to faking it all and started to cry. She got grounded for a while.
#3
There are many threads on the Internet where the topic starters ask doctors about the strangest cases of their patients faking diseases, or being overdramatic (or sometimes underdramatic) - and each time, the discussion gets more than one or two thousand comments.
Are many doctors and nurses natural-born storytellers? Or perhaps hospitals just seem like places where something weird happens from time to time... Who knows?
Be that as it may, we have specially collected for you three dozen stories about different people who were being very difficult while visiting doctors, and how it all ended for them all. So please feel free to enjoy these stories - from sad to eye-opening and sometimes outright hilarious!
#4
#5
She's lolling around on the floor making a d**n fool of herself and folks look horrified. I walked up to her and said calmly:
"Karen. What are you doing?"
To which this genius responds, "I'M SEIZING!"
I told her to stop seizing. So she did.
Edit: no, her name wasn't actually Karen. I just did that for confidentiality.
#6
In this collection, you will find tales and plots for every taste - from completely conscious manipulations of someone's health for some selfish purposes (for example, to receive insurance compensation), to completely ridiculous situations where a person is sincerely convinced that they have some kind of disease (or they have been told this for many years).
Well, and of course, a separate category of stories is related to kids and teens - because a child's sense of their body and their own psyche is often radically different from that of adults. In other words, children may simply not realize what's wrong with them - and take everything rather literally. Which sometimes makes related stories absolutely odd.
#7
He and I laughed so hard. He (the other nurse) was referred to as such (fat boy) for few months after that.
At least she wasn’t having a seizure ;)
Edit: spelling & clarification.
#8
People will try to use the ambulance as a means for transportation from Fulton to Oswego (because the hospital is in Oswego), by faking seizures. Sometimes when the head EMT guy was feeling fun and knew that the person was faking, he'd say something like "man it's weird that he's having seizures but not peeing himself". Apparently the person would kind of snap out of it for a second, weigh up the repercussions, then either pee themselves or stop faking. I thought that was hilarious.
#9
It's interesting that in world history and culture, there are many cases when people, consciously or unconsciously, claimed to have some kind of illness, and it took serious efforts to dissuade them of this.
For example, the legendary play by the French playwright Moliere called "The Imaginary Invalid," or the novel "Catch 22" by the American writer Joseph Heller, the hero of which, the army officer, resorts to many means to avoid returning to war.
Well, sometimes people are just simply convinced that they are sick, often with other folks' personal insidious goals. It's quite enough to recall the scene from the "The Lord of the Rings" movie where the lying courtier Grima literally bewitched the King Théoden of Rohan, and it took the intervention of the wizard Gandalf to "cure" the king. But doctors, alas, are not magicians...
#10
Most recent instance was this lady from a few weeks ago that was apparently splitting the Oxycodone we were giving her in half in her mouth and then when the nurse's backs were turned, she would stuff it in a pill jar. A night nurse caught her in the act and all of her s**t had to be searched. We found 20 half tablets of Oxycodone she had been stashing. She told us that she was "saving them for her family in case they need them because it's just so hard to get an Oxycodone prescription these days."
I had her a few days after that, and she was having some abdominal pain (STAT x-ray showed only gas. She just really needed to fart.) But she was screaming, claiming it was a 10, and making a huge f*****g scene. She DEMANDED Dilaudid through her IV, and she wanted it to be pushed fast. Huge red flag right there. She wanted the high, not the relief. Doc straight up said he wouldn't give her Dilaudid because she was already on so many opiates. She then demanded Lorazepam, still through her IV of course. Doc was like fine whatever, just one time and only a low end dose.
I was flushing her IV with normal saline first (to make sure her IV was patent) and she leans back and is like "OOOOoooo that's so much better already". Hadn't even given her the Lorazepam yet, smdh.
#11
Next week, she was back in clinic, with her "I'm crippled" getup on again. Hmmm. A few weeks later I got the subpoena for the deposition, and it all became clear.
#12
He.
Was.
Serious.
I threw it away and walked his d*****s back to the waiting room to contemplate his stupidity.
"Sometimes many such cases are associated with the so-called Munchausen syndrome," says Iryna Stasiuk, an expert in syndromic therapy from Odessa, Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. "This syndrome, named after a literary character known for his tendency to tell lies nearly everywhere, describes situations when a person deliberately simulates or induces illness syndromes in themselves in order to receive treatment."
"The reason for such behavior lies rather in the mental plane - a person simply wants additional attention, care and sympathy from others, and if these are doctors and nurses, they are quite happy with this. By the way, often, if such a person is denied treatment or is declared cured, they may well turn to other specialists - with the same goal."
"There is also a variation of this syndrome - the so-called delegated syndrome, when people try to convince everyone that their children, parents or spouses have a disease. Admitting these 'patients' for sure. In this case, it's caused by a mental need to provide increased care for the 'patients' - even if they don't need this care at all," Irina says.
#13
Nurse sounding upbeat & cheerful says, "your son wants to tell you his terrible news."
Son gets on the phone, says "Hi mom, I cut my finger off."
I ask him, "Where is your finger now?"
Son: "I put it back on."
I said, "Can I talk to the nurse?"
Nurse gets on the phone again, says, "Sounds serious, right?" I asked, "does he have a substitute teacher today?" Ahhhhh... yes. I told the nurse to let him know I will take him to the hospital for a shot for his finger, to which he says "I think it's OK. I glued it on really good."
Nurse kept him in the office for a bit to talk about scary changes in the classroom.
#14
**Editing to clarify my last sentence since I'm getting some aggressive replies:**
If you don't feel like you can be authentic with your therapist, continue searching until you find a therapist you feel comfortable with. Sometimes it's just not a good fit. It happens. You're not obligated to continue seeing a therapist you don't feel comfortable with. If you feel like you need to fake or exaggerate something to be taken seriously by a therapist, it's not a good fit. Continue searching until you find someone who takes you seriously.
Also, I'm not a solid resource for DID information. It's not a common diagnosis and my experience with it has been extremely limited. Stick to peer-reviewed information and experts in the field for the most accurate and up to date information.
#15
The ambulance folks arrive, casually got out of the ambulance, walk up to me and then saw the bone sticking out of my body, and said, quote, “Oh! You’re actually hurt!”
YES! Did you think I called 911 because I spilled some lemonade??
Then it occurred to me that most of their calls must be horseshit. But to cause me even more confusion, I received close to a $2000 bill for the privilege of actual help and the ride to the hospital.
That ludicrous bill is no fault of the EMS - I’m very much appreciative of their existence and they don’t get nearly enough credit - but the best part of receiving that bill? The ambulance ride was roughly $1850. The fentanyl they gave me was $2.15.
So, when you read these stories, please try to perceive everything critically enough - in fact, what may look funny or absurd may well be a situation that actually requires medical intervention. Not, let's say, a surgeon or a dentist, but a psychoanalyst.
In any case, we're pretty much sure you'll find these tales quite interesting, so have a nice time reading, and maybe add your own stories of such kind in the comments below - if you have ever had to face or witness something similar too. The more interesting and informative the reading, the better!
#16
#17
#18
Edit: Yes, sternum rub, got it.
#19
On my ER rotation and a trauma came in from a women that the had been arrested. During the drive the patient “banged” her head 4 times against the window of the police car and then went unresponsive.
She came to us with a bruise over her forehead and unresponsive. We all smelled bs but the patient was a great actor, didn’t even flinch during the digital rectal exam (which is standard for all patients that come in through the trauma bay). Though some of the nurses said that they caught her “peeking” at us when would leave the room.
We ended up getting a CT scan (which was normal) and was even considering intubating her to secure her airway when our attending finally walked over to her, opened her eye lids and held them open while telling her to wake up. Finally she started fighting to close her eyes and the jig was up. The doctor called her out and she proceeded to start screaming at us. She was much more pleasant when she was pretending to have a brain injury.
#20
I was a good kid and never misbehaved but for some reason my mum thought I was exaggerating or faking so she told me to stop being silly and eat up. I couldn’t eat, I felt horrible and was in a lot of pain. My mum just would not believe me and thought I was trying to get attention.
About 5 more minutes of me crying and she realised something was wrong so called the doctor and put me on the sofa.
So, that was the Christmas I missed because my appendix had burst. I spent a couple of months in hospital due to complications with the surgery and missed both Christmas and my birthday. Apparently they had caught it just in time as it could very well had been fatal.
My family still donates what they can to the children’s wing of that hospital as that was the first of 3 times they saved my life.
Sorry it didn’t quite fit the topic, but reading some of these posts reminded me and thought I’d share. :)