“Fake It Till You Make It” Unravelling The Bogus Cases In The Medical World

Surprisingly, some people could go a long way to prove a lie. But, faking a medical illness is another level.

Medical situations are to be taken seriously but others see it as an opportunity to take advantage. However, once they are busted on the spot, the shame is inexplicable.

These faking sick scenarios will surely shock you. You will even question how some people had the guts to do these. Come check these out!

1. The Long Con: Tale Of Faking Paralysis

Taking trauma calls during surgery residency, we had a prisoner come in after a fight and claimed he couldn’t move or feel his legs. All the CT scans and MRIs were normal.

We would shield his legs so he couldn’t see them and poke them with needles and other sharp objects, with enough force to cause pain.

He never flinched or moved his legs at all. He was diagnosed with SCIWORA (spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality).

He stayed in the hospital for a week, with no improvement. They always had one guard with him. One night they were down in the lobby watching some television but the guard needed to use the restroom.

The patient said, “Where could I possibly go? I’m paralyzed!” Guard left him alone for two minutes. The patient was last seen sprinting down the road, naked bottoms flapping in the breeze.

He made it to a city four hours away by car before he was caught again. I have never seen anyone fake it so well. Truly playing the long con!

Wine_and_sunshine

I am a dermatologist. The patient was convinced she had melanoma and needed a biopsy and would need to be on worker's comp.

I told her it looked like ink from a marker. She demanded a biopsy I wiped the area off with an alcohol swab.

I showed her the ink and that there was no spot on her skin anymore She stormed out threatening to sue. I'm just glad I cured her melanoma

Richter915

I had a patient come in for a fall who now couldn’t move their legs at all. We did a bunch of tests and didn’t find anything.

The patient was not at all phased by suddenly being paralyzed which was the first red flag. I didn’t believe anything was wrong but the patient was still not moving their legs.

My options are to admit them for a huge workup or get them to walk. So I update them saying everything is fine, tests are negative, and you can go home. The patient gets up, gets dressed, and walks out without a word.

meropenem24

Not a doctor but worked in health care for nearly 20 years. While taking a break from the ICU, I worked in home health for a bit. I had a patient who had Munchausen syndrome.

Daily, she would call her insurance to see what things would be covered if she was diagnosed with this or that. She called her Doctor's office an average of 5x during my shift with her.

She would report all kinds of nonreal symptoms. She pestered the doctors into doing exploitive laparoscopic surgery, of course, nothing was found.

One day I walked in and she was rubbing her incisions with rotten cabbage trying to get it infected. She wasn't seeking pain meds (except to sell).

She was just as happy with antibiotics or stool softeners, anything, as long as they wrote her a prescription and she got to go to the pharmacy where she did a whole song and dance for them too, claiming allergies and reactions.

She always increased the exaggeration of her story too. One time she fluttered her eyes (after making sure I was looking) and said she lost consciousness in half a second.

She called the doctor and claimed she lost consciousness for 5 minutes, she called the insurance and claimed it was 10 minutes.

She called the pharmacy and claimed it was 30 minutes, then she called 911 and told them she woke up on the floor after losing consciousness for 4 hours.

The worst thing about her was she was a mom. Her son was 28 at the time and by all the stories of his childhood illnesses and all her saying how he is severely disabled. I knew she messed up his childhood with Munchausen by proxy.

She portrayed him as being severely disabled and that's why he would never find a wife. I met him, he was healthy and of average intelligence.

He wasn't looking for a wife, he was gay, but she refused to accept that. Working with her was so miserable that I took a couple of years off from any healthcare after that.

invisible_for_this

A young woman around 18 to 20 years old went running into a small rural hospital ER pretending to have abdominal pain.

A police officer had tagged her going more than 40 km over the limit which was “stunt driving” as per the new law in Ontario (impound and license suspension automatic).

The cop followed her into the ER and said he’d be waiting for her when she left. Locum staff such as myself were housed at a small B&B about 15 minutes away, and the ER had pre-printed order sets to be done before we arrived.

When I arrived she flat out admitted that she just came in because she freaked out and didn’t stop. I told her we’d give her 45 minutes to call her parents/family before I booted her.

Except bHCG came back positive, and subsequent ultrasound came back showing extremely early ectopic. The officer figures out something is up when he hears an air ambulance call come in over the radio.

She was completely asymptomatic and just worked out that she dodged both charges and a life-threatening issue by accident. It was a shocking moment.

Graigori

I am a Pediatric neuropsychologist. I got a referral for more or less consolidation care. The patient was 13 years old, wheelchair-bound, and required therapeutic oxygen.

She also had seizures, arthritis, musculoskeletal problems, suspected autism, completely nonverbal, severe behavior challenges, the list goes on.

He was being followed by at least 8 different specialties, clearly none of whom were communicating with each other.

The medical list was 18 prescriptions long including some incredibly heavy-duty stuff (opioids, antipsychotics, antiepileptics, that sorta stuff).

He got kicked to me after his many ER trips because the ER doctor felt something was off and he needed someone to look at the whole picture.

Factitious disorder by caregiver, or Munchausen by proxy. All of the original symptoms were parent-reported, going back to about a year old.

It had possibly started with a febrile seizure (fever-induced seizure) in infancy, but this was never witnessed by anyone but mom and it's unclear. She had been telling doctors different things.

She was convinced her son had all these disorders and told him he was going to pass away any day. He got a Make-A-Wish trip, donations, etc.

He was removed from her custody and taken off most of his meds. Within a few weeks, he was out of the wheelchair playing basketball, had no oxygen, was super talkative and friendly, no behavior problems.

He did have a pretty significant intellectual disability, but there's no way to say if that was organic or the result of the prescription cocktail he had been fed all his life.

Hopefully with some good therapy and a stable home, he can continue to make progress.

PathologicalLoiterer

I am a physical therapist. A working mom comes into the clinic with her infant in a stroller. She's limping like she's got a nail in her foot.

She was wincing in pain and there were tears in her eyes. She was crying during her visit with the PT. None of us think she's faking it.

She limped out of the clinic. I glanced out of the window and saw this woman bounding down the sidewalk. Her hips are swaying, in full stride, and she’s going places.

dickhass

My brother was an EMT for two years and he told me this: People will try to use the ambulance as a means of 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. He's having seizures but not peeing himself.”

The person would kind of snap out of it for a second, weigh up the repercussions, and then either pee themselves or stop faking. I thought that was hilarious.

-Stammers-

We had a family calling for a medical cab (a cab paid for by income-based insurance) from somewhere out in the sticks to our ER in a college town, every few weeks or so. The mom would be seen for some ailment or the other.

The rest of the family would go to the grocery store, go to the mall, and do all their in-town errands. She was faking an emergency illness every few weeks so they wouldn't have to pay for a cab to get their shopping done.

VexArcana

I was working at a pharmacy and we saw a guy come in to try and get a refill on some pain medicines that had no refill. After pleading that his ear hurt we told him again we couldn’t refill it.

One of the other employees saw him step into a side hallway, take a pencil, and jam it forcefully into his ear, drawing blood. He calmly left and went to the ER.

He came back a few hours later with a prescription for pain meds.

i_am_thewalrus

We had a patient when I was an intern feigning blindness. She would constantly be playing on her smartphone, only furiously trying to hide it when someone from the care team came into her room.

The best was when my attending one day strolled past her room and threw his hand up in a highly exaggerated “hello” wave.

She started to throw her arm up but caught herself halfway through, then threw her hand back into her lap and pretended to be “staring” off into nothing.

SinisterlyDexterous

I am a nurse for an ophthalmologist here. We had a 21-year-old new patient claiming to be completely blind from a sudden and severe glaucoma diagnosis from a previous unknown doctor.

He would feel around while walking and tried to keep his eyes rolled back into his head. The whole 9 yards. He said he is a famous social media rapper who is now unable to make videos or earn a living.

I exclaimed that I had heard of him before and very excitedly asked him to search and show me his social media channel on my phone so that I could subscribe.

He took my phone out of my hand and effortlessly found the app and typed away in the search bar. Oh, and of course his eyes were back to normal and focused.

Sexyfoxx85

One time my roommate (who is an ICU nurse) came to see one of my indoor soccer games. During the game, a player on the other team went down “hurt.”

He started screaming in pain and swearing and rolling around while holding his ankle before he was eventually helped off the field.

He then limped over to where the fans sat and watched the rest of the game brooding in silence before he left early.

After the game, my roommate told me he was going to go over and see if there was anything he could do to help until he saw that the guy was limping on the wrong leg.

SloopyDoops

I was told this one by a fellow nurse I used to work with when we had a psych floor. It’s not unusual for psych patients to stash things in various orifices.

This one woman was convinced she was impregnated by a ghost-like figure but no one would believe her. So one day she started complaining of massive pelvic and uterine pain. She called them contractions.

So the doctor goes to do an exam. The doctor felt something larger in there so they prepared a table to get the object out which was quite large.

So the wonderful third year helping with the procedure starts hearing this woman complain of contractions and yelling things like “Should I push him? I’m going to start pushing!”

The doctor trying to work forceps around this woman’s parts to not hurt her. Finally, it goes “got” and as he starts saying “it” he pulls out a baby doll. Head only.

The poor med student did the wobble. Went all flush, had problems keeping balance, and about took a dive. I was told he didn’t live that down the whole rotation.

Jimmienoman

I'm a nurse. We had a guy who had to come in every 3 months to get a medical certificate to say he couldn't work at his retail job due to severe disabling back pain.

He was receiving large amounts of insurance money for this condition. The doctor had done his usual examination and questions and signed it off.

The guy asked the doctor to check his shoulder, which the doctor did. Then the doctor asked how he injured it. The guy says, “I was playing rugby for a competitive team.”

The doctor again asked him, “How long have you been playing for them?” He answered that he had been playing and training the whole time.

The doctor puts this info on the insurance form. The doctor loses his mind in the staff room laughing. Next week the patient loses his mind in reception because his insurance has been canceled.

mariawest

I am a nurse but not a doctor. I had a patient who worked in a hospital (janitor) so he knew enough to fake a bit. He was seeking pain meds, complaining of chest pain, and wanting morphine.

He was worked up for everything cardiac and was fine. Then he tried to claim GI discomfort when he was being discharged. Cleared again for everything. Faked chest pain again. Cleared again.

Now he’s my patient. I’m a new face. He’s telling me he’s having abdominal pain. I call the doctor, knowing this guy's history. He says he’ll be up to see him soon. This patient wants a ginger ale (some stomach ache).

I decide to go to lunch. My coworker comes into the lunch room, disgusted. This guy had taken a dump in a basin and then dumped the ginger ale over it and tried to tell her he’d had fecal vomiting.

He needed Dilaudid right now for the pain. I walked into his room and sure enough, a pile of dump in a puddle of ginger ale.

I told him I’d have to take away his food and drinks and we’d have to put an NG down. Suddenly he changed his tune. He admitted to faking it. Why do these people do what they do?

Elizabitch4848

I am an ER nurse. I brought a patient back to a room who said he had kidney stones. I had him stop at the bathroom and get a urine sample. The dude comes out with the specimen cup that has a piece of concrete in it.

I looked him in the eye expecting some sort of joke. He was serious. I threw it away and walked him back to the waiting room to contemplate his stupidity.

_Stamos

When I was a medical student I worked in the pediatric side of the emergency room and we would give popsicles to all the kids. One afternoon an 8-year-old came in with his father, and I asked what was wrong.

The kid couldn't remember what he complained about to his dad, and the dad couldn't remember why he brought his kid in. The kid's mom was a nurse, she was working at another hospital at the time.

She was the one who would keep track of these things. Anyway, after a few minutes of trying to figure out what was going on the kid asked "So, can I have my popsicle now?" The kid was 100% healthy.

Unfortunately, we reinforced bad behavior and both the kid and the dad subsequently left with popsicles.

philosoraptor80

My cousin got glasses. Her 7-year-old little sister also wanted glasses because she thought it was so cool to wear them.

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.

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 thick glasses, and usually that wasn't the case unless there was a family history of vision issues.

Her parents had 20/20 vision and her sister only had astigmatism. They realized she was faking it. So the doctor told her parents in front of her that she'd need some 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.

sensitiveinfomax

Years ago I had a patient who had been rear-ended in an auto accident a few weeks before I saw her. She had a history of lupus.

She was decked out in the usual "I'm crippled" paraphernalia (crutches, neck brace, elbow braces, wrist braces, knee braces) and could barely walk. I saw her a couple of times and she showed no improvement.

One Saturday I was on call but had to take a “back streets” route to the hospital because of an event taking place on the main thoroughfare.

I drove through her neighborhood, because, wonders behold, there she was wearing old-lady spandex power walking down the sidewalk (holding weights in both hands). I did not call out to her.

Next week, she was back in clinic, with her "I'm crippled" getup on again. A few weeks later I got the subpoena for the deposition, and it all became clear.

konqueror321

I'm a surgery resident. When I was on my trauma rotation we had a patient come in after an MVC, with a question that maybe the patient had seized and that had caused the accident.

So he's in the trauma bay and starts shaking. The trauma nurse goes "Oh this isn't a real seizure.”

The patient stops shaking, sits up, turns to the nurse, and yells "You don't know a thing about me!"

VisVirtusque

I am an audiologist (hearing specialist), and have worked in the private sector with legal claims, and with the V.A. handling veterans' claims of hearing loss.

With those two populations, having people faking hearing loss is pretty common. Now, as a professional, the hearing test starts when I call the person's name from the waiting room.

In a normal voice, I call them, and if they answer I already know that they're normal/no worse than mild loss. This was the case with this guy. He answered and came in, we had a normal conversation.

So, with case history over, and time to test, I give the instructions over the headphones at a reasonable 50 decibels (dB). "Raise your hand when you hear the tone."

50dB tone, should be easy and clear, but he doesn't raise his hand. I go up. And up, and up. Finally, I'm putting a 100dB tone in his ear, he's flinching from pain.

It's so loud, but he doesn't raise his hand to indicate he's heard the tone, even with re-instruction. I immediately know what I'm dealing with.

I have taught entire classes on how to spot and try to get estimated true results from people trying to fake it. Long story short, I wrote a report outlining all his inconsistencies and faking behaviors.

The thing that made this one so memorable, is that we had such a pleasant conversation before. He was a fire chief.

I have firefighters in my family, it was one of those where you think "If it wasn't for professional/patient appropriate distance, we could hang and be friends." But then, this guy was determined to get a disability rating, and it just pissed me off.

Earguy

I was in the ER one night and there was a seeking substance addict who only acted in pain when there was staff around.

Have you ever seen those videos where the little kid is fine and then they spot a parent and then bawl then immediately stop and be fine when the parent is out of view? Exactly like that.

He sat just fine, with no movements or wincing or noises then wailing when a nurse was in the same vicinity, then back to fine when they left.

[deleted]

I was a 4th-year medical student On my ER rotation and a trauma came in from a woman who 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 on her forehead and was unresponsive. We all smelled BS but the patient was a great actor and didn’t even flinch during the digital rectal exam (a standard for all patients who come in through the trauma bay).

However, some of the nurses said that they caught her “peeking” at us when we left the room. We ended up getting a CT scan (which was normal).

We were even considering intubating her to secure her airway when our attending finally walked over to her, opened her eyelids, 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.

Footsiefried

I had a patient when I worked in an ICU that was sedated and on a vent. A "family" member showed up out of nowhere and was staying day and night.

I got pretty suspicious of them because they were lying about knowing this person. I just talked to the fake family member about how it must have been sad since they just celebrated their birthday a week or so before getting ill.

This person said it was a wonderful party and such, to which I replied, “His birthday hadn't occurred yet and wouldn't for months.

Turned out that when security came it was a homeless person who snuck in and found a room with a sedated patient and decided to make it a place to stay. Needless to say, security to enter the ICU was crap.

idrawinmargins

A prisoner came in with signs and symptoms of a big stroke. At that time the protocol was to get a non-contrast head CT to rule out a bleed.

Then, we have to give him tPA, a powerful clot-busting drug that’s only worth the risk if the benefit is to mitigate a major stroke. So that’s what happened.

Later in the course he got a little carried away and started embellishing his story with symptoms that didn’t make sense with his stroke diagnosis, and that’s how we figured out he was faking it just to get some time away from jail.

Sp4ceh0rse

My mom was an emergency room nurse. Years ago they brought a prisoner from the local pen in who seemed to be unconscious. The guards were suspicious that he was faking it.

They checked his vitals and everything seemed to be ok. The attending doctor tried poking him in the foot with something pointy, nothing.

Then he got an idea, they took a rubber hose and inserted it in the back of his throat as if they were intubating him. That did the trick he sat up very quickly coughing and gagging.

tomcod

My EMT instructor told me he and his crew ran on a seizure call. Gets there, the door's wide open, the female patient is unconscious and naked.

They start assessing her while one guy clears the house to make sure no one else is inside and get something to cover her.

After doing an arm drop test and trying to check her pupils, they all figure out that she's faking her illness. However, their general policy was never to openly state that but to just roll with it instead.

In line with that, he starts to call for an ambulance to come take her to the hospital. When one of his guys says "Captain, she's faking it." Then this woman, who is supposed to be unconscious and unresponsive, says "No, I'm not."

poizunman206

When I was a kid I learned I could fake my sickness and use it as a reason to get out of school. So 1 to 2 days a week I would get a “migraine” and hold my head and complain immediately and I would get to go home.

Eventually, my parents took me to a neurologist who said “Maybe you just don’t let him eat chocolate and sugar?” I admitted to faking and was grounded for a long long time.

macaronismoothie

One time, a paramedic I work with told a frequent flyer that we weren't going to give her any pain medicine because she walked to the ambulance and didn't seem to be in any pain.

She immediately went "unresponsive" and kept up the act until we got to the ED. When we were at the hospital the medic said, "Too bad she's unresponsive because we can't give pain meds to people who aren't responsive!"

Her eyes immediately shot open. He looked at her, with the doctor and nurses in the room, and said, "Now you're not getting any pain meds" and walked out.

[deleted]

I'm an ICU and ER nurse. We get a lot of malingering in the ER. One day, one of our frequent fliers came in and started faking a seizure in triage. I know this lady and she's fake-seized a million times before.

But this time it's in the lobby in front of about 30 people, who have no way of knowing that it's fake. She's rolling around on the floor making a 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.

CursesandMutterings

When I was a kid, I would plan my “sick” days way ahead of time. I had an old thermos that I would pour leftover milk, meat, whatever. I leave it on the windowsill in my bedroom.

I just let it fester for a month. (Of course, the thermos was closed so no smells escaped). I set an alarm for the middle of the night and dumped the contents of the thermos on my rug.

I ran in to tell my dad I was throwing up and “so sick.” However, this thermos monstrosity filled the entire condo with horrible smells.

Both me and my dad ended up puking into the tub at the same time every time we tried to clean up the rug. He had to take the day off work too. Needless to say, I never pulled that again.

catsbluepajamas

I have a funny story from work a couple of years ago. The guy calls in sick for around 8 days and says on the phone he is sick.

He comes back to work the next week, tanned as heck. This dude hands a medical slip to the manager written in Spanish.

On the slip, there is an official seal from some random Cuban clinic. The guy walks over to me with a grin on his face saying ''Yeah I'm probably fired.” He was fired.

[deleted]

Not a doctor but a nurse. We once had a patient having a “seizure.” The other ER nurse and I knew she was faking it. He said as much.

She suddenly “stopped” seizing miraculously and looked straight at him. Then she just yelled, “Shut up fat boy.”

He and I laughed so hard. He (the other nurse) was referred to as such (fat boy) for a few months after that. At least she wasn’t having a seizure.

bionicfeetgrl

My wife works in a hospital (Radiographer) and some of the nurses have told stories of those who fake being unconscious. A couple of surefire ways to check this are knuckling the sternum or knocking on a clavicle without warning.

Then there was the amusing story she heard where a nurse said out loud "You know that even while unconscious, a person will reflexively not let their hand hit their face?"

And proceeded to lift the patient's arm and drop it over their face, to which the “unconscious” person stopped their hand in mid-air. Yup.

cyborg_127

I'm not a doctor but a nurse. 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 for me," "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 needed to start doing things for herself, she grew more and more frustrated.

Eventually, she snapped, grabbed me by my collar, shook me aggressively, 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 on me. I guess I healed her hands. Praise the Lord.

Beasti-benz

ER patient registers with chief complaint of dental pain, and allergies to every known NSAID. (Yes, I know this can be genuine such as with AERD.)

This is a small rural hospital, so I happen to see this guy go across the hall to the lounge help himself to a big mug of hot black hospital-quality coffee, and proceed to drink it in the waiting area.

On asking about the dental pain, he reports that the pain is severe and worsened by drinking cold or hot liquids. His head and neck exam is non-acute.

He is discharged to home with instructions for supportive care including ice packs and a follow-up with his dentist ASAP. His dissatisfaction is loud and salty.

RichardBonham

We had a patient and a family member coming in stating that the patient has epilepsy and needs Benzos. While gathering basic history the patient starts having a seizure. Rolling on the ground, head shaking and feet kicking.

I asked the patient if he needed any help during the seizure. He responds by saying he is experiencing a seizure. The family member is trying to convince me that the patient is having seizures like this every day and needs benzos.

I kindly told the patient and family member these were psychogenic nonepileptic seizures and he needed to see a psychologist for an evaluation. They had a hard time believing this condition and walked out.

iTz_KingQ

I am a dentist. I had a patient complain of toothache which required extraction. Did extraction and patient left in good health.

The patient called within 20 minutes of leaving saying they were in the worst pain of their life. 11/10 pain and requested a script for oxycodone.

The patient came back the next day in tears. Shambles. I started to feel bad because it looked like they were in genuine pain. Take a look in the mouth and everything is fine. Healing is normal.

Once again, they request oxycodone. I say no, we need to think of something else. And that is where it changed. When I declined giving a strong narcotic they flipped out.

They switch and become violent. Yelling. Throwing instruments. Had to be escorted out. This is where I learned substance seekers will do anything to obtain what they want.

Macabalony

I was an EMT and had a frequent flyer who rotated through various chief complaints, one of which was complete blindness, with emphasis on complete.

We did our duty, of course: got him on board, took vitals, and gave him BLSD to the nearest hospital. But we occasionally had a bit of fun with him.

In one of the blindness calls, we noted that he walked a rather narrow and windy path from his trailer to the rig without any issues.

Once onboard the rig, when asked for his insurance card, he fingered through his wallet and fetched it from among a mass of cards without issue. When asked direct questions, he met our gaze and followed it when our heads moved.

When I pointed all this out to him, his only response was to quickly look at something over my shoulder and stammer through, "N-no. I'm blind." I answered, "OK, our mistake then. Off we go."

Lightheat

A 13-14 year old girl came in for spontaneous bruising and pain in her medial ankle/calf. Symptoms come and go sporadically. Her mom was concerned.

No trauma history. I looked at the leg, the “bruise” was shiny/shimmering. I grabbed an alcohol-soaked gauze and wiped off the graphite from a pencil.

The girl was mortified and her mom was embarrassed. It was done for attention. Strongly recommend a psychiatric evaluation to her mom.

mfieldspa

We had a woman bring in a kidney stone she passed and said she was in agony with another stone. She ramped up the analgesic ladder until she was on opiates, pethidine most likely.

All the scans came back negative and we had the stone she brought in analysed. It came back as being quartz, not a mineral that occurs in the body. When confronted with this fact she quickly left.

6 months later, I’d rotated to another nearby hospital. A woman came in with abdominal pain and I went to see her. We locked eyes and instantly recognized each other. I said nothing but she knew the jig was up and self-discharged.

DrPeterR

I work in occupational health (I’m an athletic trainer, not a doctor though). I once had a guy come in complaining of back pain. He hobbled into my office walking one inch at a time and groaning in pain.

I knew he was faking it when I hardly touched 10 different areas on his back and he howled in pain. I looked out the window to my office and saw about a dozen baby turtles crossing.

I called out for him to come look. He jumped off the massage table and sprinted over in awe of the baby turtles. I told him to get back to work.

MadLove1348

I am a nursing student. Pediatric patients are my favorite fakers. Once I was giving the kids in the ward Mantoux shots (a test to see if you’re TBC positive).

A 5-year-old male kept telling me I couldn’t give him that shot because he was allergic to needles. He started fake-coughing when approached and said he couldn’t breathe.

I just said that it was a pity he couldn’t get the shot because I gave free tattoos to the kids who got it. You’re supposed to draw a circle or a square to mark the area since the results on the skin are available only 72 hours after the injection.

I always draw little doodles with skin-safe pens on kids. He said that maybe we should try to see if he was still allergic because he wasn’t so sure, and stopped fake coughing.

ginnymoons

I am an ICU nurse, I was warned in a report that this woman was attention-seeking. I walk in to assess her and she starts. I just ignore her (behavior); The pulse is good, lungs clear, and no problems.

Meanwhile, she's acting like she's getting progressively short of breath. I tell her if she doesn't need anything I'm going to check on my other patient. I left, and the rest of the night was uneventful.

To be fair, she went downstairs for a CT earlier that day, she started when a radiology staff called a code. Her day nurse walks in, yells "Knock it off Karen!" and walks out. Crisis averted.

emmettfitz