Doctors Reveal Real Cases Of Patients Who Faked Illness Or Injuries

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    Text - Wine and sunshine 544 points · 3 days ago Taking trauma call during surgery residency, had a prisoner come in after a fight and claimed he couldn't move or feel his legs. All the CT scans and MRISs were normal, but 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 th
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    Text - meropenem24 4.5k points · 3 days ago · edited 3 days ago Had a patient come in for a fall who now couldn't move their legs at all. Did a bunch of tests, didn't find anything. The patient was not at all phased by suddenly being paralyzed which was the first red flag. Didn't really believe anything was wrong but the patient was still not moving their legs. My options are to admit for a huge work up or get them to walk. So I update them saying everything is fine, tests are negative, you can
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    Text - confusedbarney 59.8k points · 3 days ago 33 30y/o woman came to the ED with such "excruciating belly pain", "paralyzed", "oh god it hurts when you press there", "MUST HAVE OXYCODONE NOW". ED doc said if she can get out of the ED bed and do 20 jumping jacks, we can give her the Oxy. She did 20 jumping jacks, then got kicked out of the ED.
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    Text - sixacorns 1.8k points · 3 days ago 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 didnt 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 Do
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    Text - SinisterlyDexterous 34.2k points · 3 days ago O 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 pst her room and threw his hand up in a highly exaggerated 'hello' wave. She started to throw her arm up to but caught herself half way through, then threw her hand back into her lap and pretended to be 'st
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    Text - sexyfoxx85 12.8k points · 3 days ago Nurse for an ophthalmologist here. Had a 21 year old new patient claiming to be completely blind from a sudden and severe glaucoma diagnosis from a previous unknown doctor. Would feel around while walking, tried to keep eyes rolled back into his head. The whole 9 yards. He said he is a famous YouTube rapper that is now unable to make videos or earn a living. I exclaimed to have heard of him before and very excitedly asked him to search and show me his
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    Text - _Stamos 9.9k points · 3 days ago ER nurse. Bringing a patient back to a room who said he had kidney stones. I had him stop at the bathroom and get a urine sample. Dude comes out with with the specimen cup that literally has a piece of concrete in it. Looked him in the eye expecting some sort of joke. He. Was. Serious. I threw it away and walked his dumbass back to the waiting room to contemplate his stupidity.
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    Text - Seraaphime 5.4k points · 3 days ago We had a patient faking a seizure so my supervisor told one of us to get the "brain needle". The patient made a miraculous and swift recovery without intervention.
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    Text - philosoraptor80 930 points · 3 days ago 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, and she was the one that would keep track of thes
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    Text - kaloking 32 points ·3 days ago One of my colleagues was working in ED and a patient was complaining of bleeding from the backside. Standard procedure is you have to stick your finger up the backside to check. As he's pulling his finger out, the patient moans "Mmmmmm that was lovely" pulls up his pants and walks out of ED. The older nurses all knew him cause he would do this every couple of months
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    Text - ctsneak 31 points · 3 days ago Not me, but a coworker who's a mental health therapist had a client he was seeing for PTSD. The client was in the army and did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They worked on processing the trauma and managing his symptoms. Fast forward six months into treatment and something happened with the client's private insurance, so the therapist referred him to the VA. The client said he lost all his information for his veterans benefits. My coworker went through all
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    Text - Morphine_Gtt 21 points · 3 days ago Had an elementary school age female get admitted with a full workup, sent in from the PCP, for "red blobs in urine". Totally well aside from said blobs. Discharged when we couldn't find anything acute going on, to follow up with specialists pending pathology results of these blobs. Grandma called the next day to tell us the kiddo confessed to putting crayon shavings in the urine collection cups. Hid them in their underwear. Weird shit.

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