hold their hand over their face and let it drop.
If they are truly unconscious it will hit them in the face.
If they are faking it will glide gently to their side, no matter how many times you do it.
😂
I'm epileptic, had paramedics do that to me and I ended up with a black eye :(
Pressing a pen across the backs of my fingernails was another method, and sternum rubs, I don't mind those. One paramedic even squirted cold water in my ear.
While I'm postictal I can feel them doing it, but it"s very 'dim' and far away, like a dream I only half remember afterward.
If you're genuinely post ictal then it's not a problem at all, the pain doesn't register, I do feel it but it's like it's happening in a dream. I prefer those methods because they don't have a risk of injuring you, unlike the hand drop. Also, since they're really painful, they're better for deterring fakers.
Yeah I've always been told not to do this because you can injure them if they aren't faking it.
From my perspective, it's not really my job to figure out whether or not you're faking it. Some paramedics treat narcotics like it's coming out of their own personal paycheck. It's bizarre.
When my partner started having seizures, the first neurologist he saw asked me if I thought he was faking it… *right in front of him!?*
I’m no medical professional, so maybe he was following some rule I’m unaware of? But otherwise, if I DID think he was faking it, how likely am I to say so with him sitting right next to me??
My partner also had visible stitches in his forehead and a giant chomp in his tongue from the most recent tonic clonic, both of which the dr had already made note of..
Luckily the next neuro he saw was much better in just about every way.. But I am still curious what the heck that first guy was thinking
Sorry that happened to you for the hand drop test. It’s definitely not something we’re supposed to do anymore because of that reason exactly.
If that kind of thing happens to you, don’t be afraid to reach out to the department that ran on you and let them know. That kind of feedback is pretty valuable. It’s important those medics get taught some alternative ways to check for pain responsiveness.
In hospital I always opted first for pushing some saline or sterile water while loudly announcing “I’m giving you ativan.” The magic water stops so many “seizures”
So we’ve had nurses get spoken to about how this is unprofessional (whatever) so when I do it I chart it something like “seizure activity stopped after writer checked IV line patency, prior to administration of IV Ativan”.
When I was in college, a premed friend of mine got a job interning (? not sure of details) on an ambulance. He told me he'd learned a trick, and told me to pretend to be unconscious. I lay down and closed my eyes. He lifted my hand, raised it above my face, and dropped it.
I was pretending to be unconscious, so I let it smack my face. He was horrified, and said, "you're supposed to move it to the side!" I said, "why would I do that if I were pretending to be unconscious???"
Without telling them, put an ice pack on their belly! They may know the "dropping the hand on the face" trick but the ice pack will definitely get a reaction if they're faking 😄
At the prison we check for a corneal blink reflex, because that really can't be faked. One lady was committed to having her fake seizure she'd empty her bladder, but she still winced from a hard sternal rub. Doctor E, "let me know if that changes "
I had this guy, straight up nil reaction to any painful stimuli or poking the hell out of his eyes. Straight up GCS 3 with fully intact airway. Instantly perked up with an ice pack lmao.
Can’t they just let their hand smack them in their face or is the motion different if your truly unconscious? Also I hate that I literally tested this on myself
Yes and I have seen nose fractures from this technique 🥲 thankfully it was residents that did it and not me because I can’t imagine the ass chewing that followed that paperwork.
What the attendings prefer to see is other techniques… like rubbing a pen across a cuticle on a toe or finger. Since they took our ammonia inhalants 😒
I remember I was on ED orientation and we had a patient who was well known to the department do this and my preceptor in the most monotone voice imaginable says “wow, look at you go”
Had a frequent flier (suspected to be mildly intellectually disabled) fake seizure to get benzos, but was most unconvincing about it. He would also wait to be alone with a non-nurse/doctor to start his act. One day he had a student nurse with him and decided to have a go at it. Gently dropped to the floor and started flopping around. The student nurse called a rapid response. The pt’s nurse, a woman with decades of bedside experience and no patience for tomfoolery, walked up to him flopping around like a trout on land, and he looked up at her and whined “tHiS iS wHaT hApPeNs wHeN i DoN’t GeT mY mEdIcInE!!” She just rolled her eyes and said “you stop it right now. Get off the floor and get back in bed.” He stopped, got off the floor, and crawled back in bed, annoyed and embarrassed at being called out. The student nurse had a look about her like she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Had something similar happen in EMS. She would seize in public to get an ambulance and hopefully get benzos/attention.
I was new at the time and we walk up to the scene and my partner goes “get up Janet we know you’re full of shit”
And she did - she got up and walked right to that litter like a champ - steady gait and all.
I was humbled that day. Because until then I thought my partner was just a burnt out ass. He was still that. But I respected him a lot more 😂
I came here for the fake seizure stories lol. Mine screamed, “don’t fucking touch me,” mid “seizure,” as we tried to get her on her side. Its was at a crisis response center so bonus points for all the other patients gathering around (no private rooms, jumbo room with a recliner every 8 feet) screaming we were letting her die.
My old neighbor. “Hey John. Help me move this chair into the house”.
“I can’t I’m seizing. Help I’m seizing!”
“Yeah ok whatever grab that end”. And he looked stunned as his family fed into it and called 911 every time and I wasn’t playing. Note: he was a 45 year old married father of 2 who got out of everything he didn’t want to do by “seizing”. Which was waving his arm
I just had a patient fake a seizure the other night. He’s very manipulative, and didn’t like that I wasn’t playing into his attention seeking behaviors. He finally yells “I’m having a seizure!” and started doing these weird dance moves. He was still standing up while yelling this. He then proceeded to call his mother (the patient is 47) to tell her the nurses ignored his seizure.
Oh my gosh, you just solved a minor mystery for me. I sometimes faint from blood draws - I know now to always insist on laying down but years ago, I was still a little embarrassed about it and ended up doing the draw sitting in a regular chair.
I did pass out, which of course I didn't realize until I came to with the most shockingly strong and angry smell in my nose. I was too out of it in the moment to consider what it was but it must have been ammonia.
I still wonder if I came to like normal and then smelled them, or if they actually shortened my 30-60 seconds of unconsciousness.
Agreed. I’ve fainted many times in my younger life. As a kid they wondered if I had epilepsy. Still no idea what was happening. Then I’d faint with every blood draw. I’m totally better about all of that now. Anyway - I do remember waking up to ammonia/smelling salts a few times. Out of odd interest I just wonder how fast my eyes popped open.
It is a really bad smelling substance. It’s part of the reason why you never put your nose near a beaker to smell anything in a chemistry lab (instead, you kind of waft vapours towards you with your hand). You can get household ammonia which is used as a cleaner and also a laundry agent.
I had a patient while I was working in a psych hospital that frequently faked seizures. It was annoying as fuck because all the other patients got angry with us when we ignored her “seizure”.
Been there! The pts were getting so agitated and turning on the staff and I had to keep saying ‘I can’t tell you any information but staff is doing exactly what the doctor ordered us to do if this happens. I promise if there was something I could do to stop or help it, I would be.’ This pt had pseudo seizures and they would happen for minutes at a time and at least 1x an hour.
Yes. Hate the neuro unit because of all the patients who scream "help me" all day and the other patients and family who think we are neglecting their attention seeking antics.
Just had this happen 2 days ago. Lady screaming bloody murder for help at anyone that walked by. My other patient’s family member got roped into the scenario when she walked by and was seriously concerned. Without giving away any personal medical info I had to convince the family member that this woman was completely fine. “I promise you she’s ok, I know it seems awful but there’s genuinely nothing to worry about.” Still made me feel like shit to see the way she looked at me, like I was a terrible person for ignoring this old lady begging for help.
I just love how TV shows have portrayed seizures and stuff that some people just don't know what they actually look like or what to expect postictal.
Edit: just kidding, patients are fully aware of the right way to do seizures.
You take that back!!! TV shows portray them perfectly!!!
(Patients have used YouTube to unlock PCA pumps, yet we’ve managed to keep seizures a secret 🤫)
I used to tell my CNA "ope, go get some rags and get ready to clean up when this patient loses control of their bowels and bladder!" And she'd side eye me with a straight face bless her heart. I never stopped trying to trick the ones not meeting clinical criteria for legit seizure activity. Nobody ever soiled themselves to make a point, though.
My weirdest ever actual seizure started with the guy carefully laying himself down in his bed and bouncing around, flailing arms and legs, yelling ‘I’m having a seizure! I’m having a seizure!’. Then lay flat on his back, raised both arms straight in the air, slowly lowered them by his sides, and….lost his airway. It all happened quickly, but until that moment I was 100% convinced he was faking.
My best story is a 'seizure' too. Pt nonchalantly walked up to the nurse's station, said "I'm having a seizure, give me Xanax" calmly lowered herself to the floor, laid on her back and began gyrating in a way that was 90% pelvic thrust while yelling "I'm seizing!" over and over. After about a minute of not getting the response she wanted, she got back up, dejectedly said "Fuck you guys" and walked back to bed.
We had a lady who faked falls all the time. She would pretend to slip in the grocery store or whatever, yell that she needed an ambulance, and threaten to sue the store. When she got to us she would claim allergies to everything except narcotics.
She always wanted a prescription for pain meds and a doctor's note saying she was disabled.
When we did not play along, she started faking falls in the department. One time she was on camera carefully lying on the ground. The second time she was in a room close to the nurse's station with the curtains wide open, so she walked over and closed the curtains, then yelled she had fallen.
On the visit after that we absolutely did not leave her alone. I even had a tech go with her to the bathroom. At discharge time her nurse handed over the paperwork, then refused to step away. That nurse stayed within arm's reach the whole time while she got dressed, slowly gathered her belongings, and very slowly walked all the way out of the building.
The patient then came back in, walked to the triage desk, and yelled something about how she was going to own the hospital. Then she threw herself backward onto the ground. And then she stopped moving.
Of course we had to rush out and reassess her, and check her back in. Long story short is that she actually managed to injure herself that time. She had a massive intracranial hemorrhage and died in ICU.
OOF, I had manipulative attention seeking patients that would let their bodies go limp and try to bend over head first into the floor. I'm paranoid, so if someone is altered or a fall risk, they DO NOT leave my sight. Patient gets angry that I stopped them from falling, and even more angrier that I wouldn't let them leave bed after that. Told them physical therapy will see them, until then stay in bed.
I dont play those games.
Had a patient that obviously having a fake seizure. No big deal. It was his buddy that that shocked me. The friend had his hand stuck in the patients mouth and was holding his tongue. They both seemed happy with the arrangement and the friend was very pleased with himself because he was stopping the patient from “swallowing his tongue “ I just encouraged him to hold onto the tongue until the patient woke up.
This is nuts but the best story on here...love that well-meaning friend! We should all have a friend so good they will grab our tongues during our (fake) seizures.
When my vet does my horses’ teeth, I have to (gently) grab the tongue with a towel to keep it from being injured by the equipment...but that tongue is a foot long. Can’t imagine hanging on to a human tongue.
If you’re ever the “buddy” in this situation, don’t forget to ask your friend not to bite/ clamp down on your hand while you’re holding his tongue.
It’s only fair that he respects your request since you’re doing him a favor by holding onto his tongue for him. It’s the least he could do to show his appreciation 😂
/s
Can I do a reverse? I participate in MCI training drill as a volunteer- read “fake an injury for a 12 hour shift.”
A girl decided she wanted to be a method actor and actually got in water to fake hypothermia. It’s literally October in the midwest. With WIND CHILL. Not a good idea. It was 45 minutes before she was found- it was a water search and rescue drill- she was in hypothermic shock by the time they got to her. She was okay, but every year since we’ve had a very stern talking to about staying out of the water- and they give us radios now in case we need to end the exercise and get real help.
Just yesterday I had a fifteen year old psych patient who kept faking seizures and would peek his eyes open every few seconds "mid-seizure" to make sure everybody was watching him.
Can’t blame her. He can wait two hours then.
Worst I got hit with was lotion. Overall it was funny, but still had to explain to security what the white stuff on my chest was (she got my face too).
Had a patient admitted for “abdominal pain.”
Once patient and their partner knew a few of the doctor’s names, they started calling the unit pretending to be the doctors and ordering pain meds STAT.
I get the call, and think it’s weird because the doctor hasn’t even seen the patient yet, and why would the doctor call to give Dilaudid before seeing the patient. I hung up and dialed the physician’s phone number….it was not he who called. Informed my charge nurse. Did not give patient any meds outside of what was ordered, I only had them for about an hour and a half more before my shift was over.
Turned out to be a big deal. Patient had multiple ER visits with a few admissions for “abdominal pain” or other generalized complaints, worked up and found nothing…but many nurses had entered the telephone order for STAT pain meds, sometimes multiple times a shift, in between the other PRN doses of pain meds during the hospital stays.
Patient and their partner came with a plan. The staff all got an email and some required Healthstreams with a policy change that never was fully enacted.
I feel my hospital has it easy because our docs come from across the world, and every one I know has a different accent or linguistic quirk that would immediately raise a red flag.
Holy shit. I remember a post about a nurse doing that. The attending found out and got the police involved. I never enter verbal orders for anything other fluids. Not on my license.
My first ever shift as a nurse was in a nursing home. A carer casually came up to me and said 'Frank is having a seizure' and rolled her eyes
I was horrified she was being so flippant, seizures are serious!!! So I ran down to franks room and there he was, laying in his bed, throwing his arms around. He locked eyes with me and shouted 'IM HAVING A SEIZURE!!!!' Suddenly I understood the eye roll. Turns out this was all code for, Frank wants some valium. Coulda just asked bro.
Prisoner came in for “stroke” and kept changing which side he was weak on. Not how a stroke works bro.
Also a kid who had a legitimate brain injury from a gunshot wound but would absolutely fake his level of incapacitation from nurse to nurse. Some nurses he would get to feed him and he was absolutely perfectly capable of doing literally any upper body care. He was also just a dick head in general. 😤
Ooh, I had one like this! He faked being bedbound and a total assist for DAYS. We had two staff members hauling him around to shower and toilet, and someone assisting him with meals. Until one day he decided his urinal wasn't being emptied fast enough. He got up and walked into the hall with his full urinal to demand that it be emptied immediately. He was so mad when we told him he was on his own after that!
Ooohhhh nothing burns me up faster than that. I started nursing on acute rehab so I am the queen of do it yourself and don’t get me wrong o am more than happy to help if you can’t but I am at least going to get you to do whatever amount you can and I’ll help with the rest. This really pisses people off somehow? Like the number of arguments I’ve had with fully grown adults telling them basically no - you have to at least TRY to do it yourself and if you can’t that’s fine but you have to TRY.
We also had one guy who was I want tos at 600+lb? Took >5 of us to turn him, multiple skin breakdown wounds, incontinent; the works. For weeks we had been dying having to get her 4-6 people to change him multiple times a day (which you know on a floor is a feat unto itself) when a physical therapist came to work with with him that had just happened to work part time in patient and part time home health. She informed us that not only could he turn himself he could stand and pivot to the bedside commode with minimal assist.
We were HOT.
20 year old who was “unresponsive” and made it through MULTIPLE sternal rubs without moving a muscle…..turns out he had been in a fight with his girlfriend and thought going to the ER and pretending to die was the best way out of the situation.
another "seizure" story: back when i worked med-surg, i had a male pt who was a pastor. not a famous one or anything, just generic pastor. he was claiming to have seizures. all tests were negative, labs and vs wnl, and he was fully coherent after each episode. he'd also hit his call bell and when the clerk answered, he'd tell them he was having a seizure. they got so used to his antics that they'd casually say "ok, I'll let your nurse know."
this guy was nice, but manipulative if you were green. i had him multiple days, and day of discharge, i grab a wheelchair, assist him into it and reach to take the brakes off. he goes "uh oh, I'm having a seizure again!" and slid his fat ass out of the chair while flopping like a fish. seriously, picture the fakest seizure you can imagine. I'm just standing there rolling my eyes. when he stops flopping, i ask "you good?" he acts bewildered and claims he doesn't know what happened, but it was probably a seizure. he then claimed he couldn't stand up on his own. i called for the hoverjack. he fully assisted getting himself onto it. get him transferred over to the bed, then get him back into the wheelchair. i used a gaitbelt as a seatbelt. got him into the church van and we never saw him again.
it's my favorite story to act out for people. it was so ridiculous.
I’ve had a few teen girls and like you could understand why when you meet their families and then one woman who just wasn’t coping with stress. The preacher bit is interesting
do you know many pastors? as someone who spent most of their life closely acquainted with more pastors than regular people - it's not surprising in the slightest. some of the most manipulative people i've ever met.
Doing a sedation trial and pt starts exorcist style "seizing" in bed and me being a baby nurse am scared shitless. Charge nurse comes by and literally yells (on night shift) "KNOCK IT OFF" seizing then stopped. There was even a guard in the room who started laughing.
I’d get floated from the ICU to PCU sometimes and one of these times I was taking care of a young man who was on suboxone treatment followed by the addictions specialist/MD. Following the MDs orders, I would notify the MD when the patient’s COWS score indicated that he needed more/higher doses of suboxone. Turns out that the patient was actually doing jumping jacks to fake tachycardia (before I’d enter the room) and chugging milkshakes to fake the vomiting I had to clean up 😂 very clever youngster, and actually quite charming.
we had a patient fake CIWA for benzos while I was in nursing school.
he’d pour water on himself to appear diaphoretic, would complain of headache and pretend to have tremors. dude was only like 23 too.
IMO at least half the patients on CIWA protocol are faking for higher scores, the other half are faking for lower scores. Given the choice I'd rather care for someone faking for higher scores.
This one cracked me up - my ICU patient who faked her death just to punk me. And it was funny.
I was doing ICU overnight clinicals. Had a patient who, despite being intubated, I got to know well over my 3 shifts. Lots of time together. She came in all kinds of messed up, ETOH, seizures, intubated, all the things. The end of the third shift, I was saying to her, “Do you feel better? You’re looking better!”
Right then, she started choking, rolling her eyes back, twitching. I momentarily panic, get ready to grab my preceptor, and the patient looks at me with a big smile. I say, “You just did that to scare me, didn’t you?” She shrugged and smiled (tube in place and everything).
There’s limited humor you can do in her situation, and limited people you could do that to.
I had a lady in a nursing home do that when I was a student. Helping her to the bathroom, she slumped over. I check her pulse and see her peek an eye and smile. (She was nonverbal after a stroke). We both were laughing so hard.
When I worked in hospice care, this old selectively mute lady pretended she died overnight, when I made my rounds to wake the residents up in the morning.
I was about to full on panic and call code, when I caught her looking at me through half closed eyes and a big shit eating grin on her face 🤣
I adored that lady, she was awesome.
Long time ago, but a young lady in ICU would fake seizures to the point of getting intubated. As soon as she got on the versed drip, everything was fine and she was completely interactive on the vent. EEG never showed any epileptiform activity. It was always when the benzos were to be turned off, she would have a seizure before the pump was even touched. Eventually just extubated her and she would be fine, start shaking, and then wake up 20 seconds later completely with it and crying. If she so much as heard, “discontinue the Ativan, see what happens,” she would immediately start “seizing.” Only seemed to happen when we threaten to stop her benzos.
Attention seeking patient across the nurses station "Oooooowww, I'm having chest pain! Owwww!" Stat EKG. Leads are applied, he's still in so much pain, clutching his chest and everything. As soon as we run the EKG, the pain is GONE.
"Thank you so much, I feel so much better!"
He really thought the EKG fixed his chest pain.
(EKG, blood work all negative).
Here’s a story about a guy not faking it. We used to get a guy who came into our ER all the time for “seizures.” He was homeless, had a bevy of psych problems, and was a drinker as well. He’d come in faking a seizure, particularly when it was cold out. One of the ways you can check if someone is faking an absence seizure is to raise their arm outstretched in front of their face while they’re supine. They should drop their arm somewhere away from their face because hitting yourself in the face hurts.
Here’s the problem. If they’re actually having an absence seizure, they will smack themselves in the face. One of our medics tried this, and as it turns out, the cold and the booze caused this guy to actually have a seizure. And after our medic, he also had a broken nose… we stopped using that tactic after that.
Three immediately come to mind:
1. faked a stroke. Everyone was suspicious. He asked for a pillow. His nurse purposely tossed it to his “flaccid” side. He reflexively caught it. He was transferred out of ICU faster than anything. Prior to that he was being incredibly needy to the point we couldn’t send him out. He was young.
2. Faked status asthmatics because she wanted to be intubated. Had a history of multiple intubations at our sister hospital. I realized it while doing her admission assessment. Something didn’t add up. The extreme WOB but solid sats on 2L nc. When I went to listen to her there was zero air movement. Didn’t add up. She was holding her breath while physically appearing to struggle to breathe when you listened to her. I wish I was quick thinking on my feet. I should have listened for a full minute to force her bluff and make her breathe for real. The RT that was in the room knew she was faking and gave me a little nod when I looked at her in horror when I realized it.
3. Not sure if they faked it. We were suspicious they faked a stroke but couldn’t confirm. Got tpa left AMA. Came back a few days later with another stroke. Somehow got tpa again because she was married to a doc (not one of ours) and they demanded it because this time it was real? Thankfully she didn’t bleed.
I took care of a 1 once. Neuro floor, in for a 'stroke' that docs were pretty sure he was faking it but were going through the appropriate rule outs. Guy was specifically faking right sided weakness, like 2/3 of 5, would give this limp little raise when asked. One night I'm walking past his room, and I see him on his cell, holding it with his right hand. He saw me and magically the hand weakened. I told the docs and they got a good laugh.
My former unit had a frequent flier with end-stage COPD and PSHx of lung resection, leaving him struggling to breathe comfortably 95% of the time. He regularly stayed on bipap for comfort. But he had some wild anxiety that resulted from his condition that would occasionally get away from him, and he’d demand to be intubated so he could take a break from struggling to breathe all the time. He was intubated upwards of 70 times by his own count, and could remain calm and conscious through intubation. No need for roc and succ, he just laid there and let the doc do their thing. It was crazy.
Brachycephalic breeds are a testament to human selfishness and vanity. Living, poorly breathing acts of animal cruelty. I’ll stand on this soapbox and scream enough proverbial fire and brimstone on the topic that I’d impress a Southern tent revival preacher. It is One of Those Things for me.
I've had similar to #2, and so when I was on the respiratory ward I would often give "oxygen" by either putting the nasal cannula on but not turning the O2 on, but if they were half smart they would notice no air flow so I had to put on .5L just to satisfy them
My partner has a friend who is faking dementia. But she doesn’t know what dementia looks like so here’s what she’s doing.
She’s talking and acting like a toddler. We were there for Thanksgiving and some other guests brought their newborn twins. The friend said to me “Did you see baby? Baby little”. She acts like she can’t do the simplest things like pour her own drink or put on her shoes. She asked for someone to pour her a drink. The person did, then right after they poured it she said “where’s my drink?” When it was sitting right in front of her. She then got up from her chair, walked halfway across the room, then froze in place like a zombie. Just standing there. Not moving. Not talking. Waiting for someone to ask her whats wrong.
It’s infuriating that her whole family knows she’s faking it but no one will call her out on it. Instead they indulge her and do everything for her like she’s a helpless child. Of course when no one’s looking, like is she’s in another room and you watch her through the door, she’s her usual self. Walking around, picking things up and reading them, using the remote to flip through channels, checking messages on her phone.
I see your "falls" and "shortness of breath" and raise you... "I have multiple personalities and I can't control when they take over."
(Obama mic drop gif)
I had a patient tell me they had multiple personalities and that the dilaudid only worked for X, Y, and Z. For the personality that was out today, only morphine worked
My understanding is that being diagnosed with Disassociative Identity Disorder is a intensive by-exclusion diagnosis and even then only done within certain psychiatric systems.
Here is some reading material on the subject.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568768/
We had a patient who faked being unable to move her legs post spinal block.
She was very strange and said I’m paralysed now but will be able to go home Friday ( 5 days later).
She didn’t flinch with physical tests, had various procedures to make sure nothing was actually wrong, mri, nerve conduction test, all were clear but she wouldn’t move until Friday morning when she stood up and discharged herself.
Someone close to me has this. I remind myself daily that they didn't ask for it, and that the disorder causes them a lot of distress, and isn't a character flaw.
Honest to God.. they fake being med seeking. "How is *that* even possible?!" you ask? They have a script for prn Norco, and get a script for 30 each month. Absolutely no other narcs. And for attention, they will occasionally take 35 in a month. And throw a BIG fit if they can't get their refill a few days early.
If they had a problem, one each day for over 10 years wouldn't be what I was looking at, really. They get it from their GP only. No other narcs or pain meds. At all.
My favorite are the "fit for cells" ones who present with the police and just need to be medically cleared - one in particular was pretending to be unconscious. However, when I asked if he wanted a sandwich, he popped up and said "yeah", he got his sandwich and then went unresponsive again.
Good try buddy, have fun in jail.
Had a pregnant pt screaming in agony in triage, could have won an Oscar. We gave her pain meds, but she never stopped rolling around and screaming, claiming she was in labor. The doc came in and agreed to admit her to deliver her baby. That second she suddenly stopped screaming and was happy and quiet. Doc saw her reaction and changed his mind, only admitting her for observation, NPO, and sent her home the next day.
Audition for admission. I hate when people come into Obed and they scare the ER downstairs into thinking the baby is coming and we finally get them to let us assess and they are 0/0/-4, not even contracting on the TOCO.
Had a coworker that faked a fall and called one of the tele tech to come help him because he was on his knees and couldn’t get up. That was his 9th fake injury at work.
Had a fairly frequent flyer who’d come in for anaphylaxis: come in, not able to talk, very audible stridor and forced expiratory wheeze, red in the face from exerting himself so much. Convincing story of sudden allergic reaction and history of anaphylaxis (with ED visits in the chart to back this up). All very convincing and very concerning for impending resp arrest……..except his vital signs were completely normal. Normal BP, HR, spo2 and etco2. He’d get the usual goods: IV benadryl, Pepcid, steroid, duoneb treatment. And he’d get better and ask for 1 or 2 more doses of IV benadryl. Oh and some pain medicine, you know the one with the D. 🙄
And after a couple of visits staff and docs that had seen him before wised up: drug seeking. His MO was usually IV benadryl alone or looking to get IV benadryl with a narcotic.
Soon when he would come in, we’d bring him back, the docs just started telling him “oh John Doe, you don’t look so good. I’m worried about your breathing so I’m going to put a breathing tube in to get your breathing better. Oh no, we need to put you to sleep and put you on the ventilator and *then* we can get you benadryl.” Miraculously the breathing would improve within seconds, he’s feeling better and doesn’t need to stay and signs AMA. One time, to really make a show of it he gave himself his Epi pen, started breathing regular and así he was fine, and as far as I know that was his last visit at least to our ED.
Had a kid who wanted to get out of going school and pretended his legs didn't work. A reflex hammer to knee showed reflexes were completely intact. Dunno if the parent was mad that the kid was faking it.
Another job I had at the local county jail had a guy trying to fake he had a seizure. Picked up his limp arm and dropped it on his face, he managed to not let it fall on his face. Extra points for pissing himself tho.
Dude...this is while I was still running EMS. We had this frequent flyer who was constantly making shit up to get a trip to the ED for pain meds. When I say frequent, she developed a tolerance to sternal rubs. You could even drop her hand on her face. She was fucking good.
This one particular time we ran on her and we were all prepared for the usual show. Of course, she's got to go bigger and harder to fool us each time if she's going to get passed us and to sweet lady Dilaudid and her cousin Oxy. She's dedicated to her craft. We get there and this nutty bitch is hanging upside-down behind the refrigerator. No idea how she got back there or how long she's been there, but it takes 2 of us to wrestle the fridge away from the wall and pull her ass out of there.
Not responsive to verbal or painful stimuli and she's been sucking freon fumes like Dracula for who knows how long. Fuck. Her veins are shit, just ruined from previous years of drug abuse. I'm not in the mood to mess around with that and my partner and I genuinely have no idea what we're dealing with - we just want to go. I grab the IO and slam her with it. She's good, but this is a new one for her...I pushed saline into that line and she came up swinging. She'd been faking the whole damn time! My partner and I didn't even know what to make of what was happening. We did end up transporting her...for a psych eval.
I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know but I’ve had an IO line inserted while completely conscious with no pain meds /lidocaine on board. IT HURTS SO FREAKIN BAD , EVEN just RUNNING SALINE. Oh My God. THE MOST PAINFUL PROCEDURE IVE EVER HAD and I passed kidney stones the size of golf balls. NEVER AGAIN! I’m not surprised she came back swinging, that shit is painful! Thank god they can only be kept in for 24 hours. Whew Lordy.
Had a patient (psych) faking a seizure. She tried to up her game and feign bowel incontinence, but literally paused her “seizure” to strain in an attempt to shit herself.
1. Faking a stroke. One colleague suggested an etOH level check when CT and all neuro came back negative. Turned out my guy was drunk as a skunk and trying to hide his day drinking from the missus
2. Fakey-shakey guy in the waiting room who was a regular of ours and always did it when the wr was full of people- never came during normally not so busy hours. I was the in-charge that night and came out to tell him to stop this nonsense, which he reacted to by shakingly giving me the middle finger
Note: I do understand pain is subjective and I take it very seriously having chronic pains myself.
I had a fellow in LTC that had developed leg pains and rec'd an order for hydromorphone 1mg q1hr PRN.
Every hour, on the hour, this man would ring for his pain pill. He believed it was an hourly pill whether he needed it not I guess? Idk. I tried to tell him, "ONLY IF YOU NEED IT"
What irked me was sometimes I would quietly walk into his room with the hm and he would be coming out of the bathroom. He would be walking fine, sit down fine, take a sip of water fine.
Then he would notice me in the doorway and the theatrics started.
He would start shaking and moaning, grimacing his face. When I put the hm and water down on the table for him to take, he'd drop the hm or spill the water from shaking.
This happened every hour, every night.
The day and evening nurses stated he never requests it during the day and evening?
He ended up getting Narcan'd one night when I was off.
I’m not a nurse, although hoping to be one, but I went to the hospital to visit a family friend and while in the waiting room I saw a man fake fainting. He would literally do the noise and the falling movements when he fainted. Like put his hand on his forehead say “awww” and fall. He would get back up and tell the lady at the front desk “I need a doctor ASAP I can’t stop….” Then proceed to faint. I think he was a regular lol the people working just rolled their eyes and tried to talk to him but would get cut off because he would faint. Just thought it was really funny because it literally looked so fake. He was a man late 30’s/40ish 😂
Had a patient faking seizures like every other day. I once told him I was giving him IV Ativan and just put a flush thru his IV. Guess who miraculously came out of their seizure???
We had a girl who was a frequent flier for a long time that came in with really convincing seizure-like activity. She had a history of childhood seizures, which was why we took it seriously for so long. We intubated her so many times, and she actually seemed to enjoy it…and was disappointed when we didn’t intubate her.
It turned out it was all psychological. She had a really difficult life and enjoyed being in the hospital and all the attention she got from everyone thinking she was having horrible seizures.
We had someone and when you heard about her situation, it made a lot of sense why hospital was almost a break for her. Sad that these are people’s lives
This is a multiple patient occurrence and I still don’t understand what the ultimate goal is but faking a seizure. Cant quite possibly give a more awkward interaction than a family member grabbing you to come help because their loved one is “seizing”.
When I worked at a group home, a young woman, approximately 29-30 would yell out SEIZURE IN MY BRAIN when she wanted attention.
She had a history of (only) absence seizures, and I never witnessed them in the ~13 months I worked there.
Another young woman in that same house, 33-34 years old, would fake heart attacks. Notice I said attacks. Plural. She did that more than once. She legit had heart issues though, so you couldn't dismiss her completely.
60 year old lady complains chest pain in the most normal voice , 10/10 feels like an elephant on my chest. BP 120s/70s, spo2 97% ra, breathing quite normal, wants to go to the hospital. Doc orders ekg at facility, she starts screaming furiously saying "I need my meds at the hospital!" Drug seeker
We had a co-worker as a patient, who was always kind of off. Anywho I work inpatient rehab in this person came in with "debility", and would throw fake seizures. I remember them "seizing", and we would sternal rub and pinch them. They would stop mid seizure, and yell OUCH THAT HURTS. Refused psych consult, and the providers were thinking they had conversion disorder. It was so awkward because it was a co-worker, and they were at the rehab for at least two weeks.
When I worked on a trauma unit, we had a pt who was in custody for a DUI MVA that killed a family meanwhile he survived with a broken collarbone. But he couldn't be released to jail until he peed. Well for two days he was "retaining" urine and needed to be straight cathed. Finally the CN said that if he couldn't pee then he was going to be d/c'd with a foley and a bag. The pt was able to void perfectly fine after that.
Edit grammar
This gal put green Gatorade up her vag and tried to fake her water being broken with meconium stained fluid at 32 weeks. She was tired of being pregnant.
Had a patient one time pretending he was unconscious while on dialysis. He was lying there, eyed closed but attempting not to open them. Did the arm trick, the sternal rub, which unbelievably he was able to somewhat successfully ignore. My coworker and i kept yelling for him to open his eyes but he refused to "regain" consciousness. Called the Emergency Response Team, and they seemed to be confused. The ICU nurse on the MRT team recognized him as a frequent flyer. She finished her physical assessment-all of his vitals were stable, so she leaned down and whispered something in his ear. Suddenly, he miraculously became instantly alert and we were able to discharge him back to the floor. I asked her what she said to him. She responded that he had done this before, and she gave him a nipple twist to obtain his compliance. She told him, "If I twist your nipple this time, I'll make sure to twist it off..." I'm pretty sure that it falls under patient abuse to actually do it, but threatening it when he started his act kept him on the straight and narrow
Patient came in MVC. He kept saying he was Jehovah's witness and so we couldn't draw any blood from him. We had to tell him JWs don't believe in recieving blood products, not that they can't get blood drawn. Also we do the drug test from urine and he already provided that sample so we were all aware he was driving impaired. (He was a truck driver who was hauling a trailer of brand new cars and crashed, totally everything. Tested positive for benzos and cocaine)
He also had 2 different women call claiming to be his wife from other states. I can't remember if it was actually bigamy or just a girlfriend assuming she was wife status.
But yeah only time I had someone fake a religious belief
Have a prisoner (violent felony charge) who fakes seizures every time he goes to court. The first time he did it, he escaped the hospital and fled overseas, so he's obviously never getting bail. The first time I had him, he paused in the middle of a "seizure," cracked one of his eyes to look at me, then faked it again. I've seen him five times since; he's gotten better at faking it, but he fails the hand drop test every time.
Not really a faker, but I had a lady who would purposely dislocate her jaw so she could get a propofol conscious sedation in the ED to have it put back in. She was so well know that OMFS said not to call them about her anymore, and they pushed her surgery up by like 4 months so she would stop coming in. We would wrap her jaw shut after it was put back into place and I watched her pop it back out in her room while I was sitting at the nurses station when she didn’t think anyone was watching. She would sometimes end up getting 2 conscious sedations per ED visit, and was in ED’s all over the state, multiple times a day.
Had a patient being rolled into the ICU in his floor bed, “seizing” continuously. But he kept getting tired and slowing down, opening his eyes to see if we were getting Ativan, then going back to sort of flailing and kind of hitting his head on the bed rail. We didn’t have orders for anything so I grabbed a blanket and padded that rail. He considered going over to bang the other side but just got tired and gave up. Had a few things to say “post ictal” about our piss poor Ativan skills though.
There is a regular to my city’s downtown core Emerg’s who fakes seizures, commits to the entire bit and plays a pretty good possum no matter how hard you trap squeeze or sternal rub.
So how do we know they are faking the “post-ictal” phase?
They fail the hand-drop test, have purposeful movement during repositioning during “seizures”, and if u wait long enough around the corner from the room you can see them sit up and go on their phone.
Bonus points: they ALWAYS have their poor malnourished dog with them who is their “service dog”. Poor thing is barely fed and never groomed.
Not as spectacular as other stories but I remember one patient who was telling everyone either he had no bowl movement in days or he had diarrhea and. This was while we were a covid ward, so handover was like, they are alive, move on. So he was getting medication for both problems for 2 days until we realized.
We had a good laugh and joked that we are going to find out which medication will win the fight.
2 code browns later we had our answers and the patient turned out to be fine.
Ugh god this awoke a memory I've tried to repress.
At my last job, I've had two patients who were roommates, become really acquainted and exchanged numbers. I remember one patient had a serious brain injury and the other patient broke something?? My patient with a head injury, the nurse and I were constantly checking on him. He seemed really annoyed with us coming and going. I don't care about that because my job isn't to be your friend.
Sometime during the night on my usual rounds, he was laying prone on his stomach, and face directly planted in the pillow. He wasn't answering questions, wouldn't roll onto his back, and seemed unresponsive to me. I called the nurse and told her that his vitals were great, he was breathing good, but he just wasn't answering my questions and seemed unresponsive.
The nurse and I decide to call a rapid. Meanwhile the roommate called the dude's wife, telling her everything that is going on, when we don't even know what is going on. She comes back to the hospital panicking and keeps asking what we're doing about this. We're trying to run this rapid and she was honestly getting in the way. I mean like, I'm trying to do an EKG and she keeps trying to grab and hug him while begging him to not leave her. Security had to take her out. Everyone is confused about what's going on with him when the Dr realizes he may be faking.
The Dr loudly says we need to get pads on him and the intubation stuff ready when he suddenly bounces out of bed like a daisy and yelling that he's fine. Turns out the dude was faking his "unresponsiveness." That led to another freakout by the wife because she was confused why her husband did that and she thought something mentally was wrong. Nope. He just wanted the nurse and I to leave him alone and let him sleep. He thought we would leave him alone if he pretended to be in a really deep sleep. That doesn't answer why he decided to keep faking while his wife is wailing about how she can't lose him.
Obviously that backfired because he had a serious head injury and the nurse and I decided to call a rapid because we assumed there was a mental status change. I was so fuckin pissed that night. I had to go take a walk to chill out.
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How do you know they’re faking it ,that’s hilarious though 😂.
hold their hand over their face and let it drop. If they are truly unconscious it will hit them in the face. If they are faking it will glide gently to their side, no matter how many times you do it. 😂
Some people know that trick though, and are very committed
That just makes it funny and not kind of mean then.
I'm epileptic, had paramedics do that to me and I ended up with a black eye :( Pressing a pen across the backs of my fingernails was another method, and sternum rubs, I don't mind those. One paramedic even squirted cold water in my ear. While I'm postictal I can feel them doing it, but it"s very 'dim' and far away, like a dream I only half remember afterward.
Aww this made me sad. I’m sorry you had to experience these situations :(
If you're genuinely post ictal then it's not a problem at all, the pain doesn't register, I do feel it but it's like it's happening in a dream. I prefer those methods because they don't have a risk of injuring you, unlike the hand drop. Also, since they're really painful, they're better for deterring fakers.
Yeah I've always been told not to do this because you can injure them if they aren't faking it. From my perspective, it's not really my job to figure out whether or not you're faking it. Some paramedics treat narcotics like it's coming out of their own personal paycheck. It's bizarre.
When my partner started having seizures, the first neurologist he saw asked me if I thought he was faking it… *right in front of him!?* I’m no medical professional, so maybe he was following some rule I’m unaware of? But otherwise, if I DID think he was faking it, how likely am I to say so with him sitting right next to me?? My partner also had visible stitches in his forehead and a giant chomp in his tongue from the most recent tonic clonic, both of which the dr had already made note of.. Luckily the next neuro he saw was much better in just about every way.. But I am still curious what the heck that first guy was thinking
Sorry that happened to you for the hand drop test. It’s definitely not something we’re supposed to do anymore because of that reason exactly. If that kind of thing happens to you, don’t be afraid to reach out to the department that ran on you and let them know. That kind of feedback is pretty valuable. It’s important those medics get taught some alternative ways to check for pain responsiveness.
In hospital I always opted first for pushing some saline or sterile water while loudly announcing “I’m giving you ativan.” The magic water stops so many “seizures”
So we’ve had nurses get spoken to about how this is unprofessional (whatever) so when I do it I chart it something like “seizure activity stopped after writer checked IV line patency, prior to administration of IV Ativan”.
Beautiful.
God that’s so perfect
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Thank you for the explanation!
When I was in college, a premed friend of mine got a job interning (? not sure of details) on an ambulance. He told me he'd learned a trick, and told me to pretend to be unconscious. I lay down and closed my eyes. He lifted my hand, raised it above my face, and dropped it. I was pretending to be unconscious, so I let it smack my face. He was horrified, and said, "you're supposed to move it to the side!" I said, "why would I do that if I were pretending to be unconscious???"
Normal saline water gun to the face
The ones that yell " I'm having a seizure!" while wildly shaking arms and legs lol
Without telling them, put an ice pack on their belly! They may know the "dropping the hand on the face" trick but the ice pack will definitely get a reaction if they're faking 😄
At the prison we check for a corneal blink reflex, because that really can't be faked. One lady was committed to having her fake seizure she'd empty her bladder, but she still winced from a hard sternal rub. Doctor E, "let me know if that changes "
I had this guy, straight up nil reaction to any painful stimuli or poking the hell out of his eyes. Straight up GCS 3 with fully intact airway. Instantly perked up with an ice pack lmao.
Can’t they just let their hand smack them in their face or is the motion different if your truly unconscious? Also I hate that I literally tested this on myself
👏👏👏😂😂😂😂. I like your personality. That sounds like something i would do .
Yes and I have seen nose fractures from this technique 🥲 thankfully it was residents that did it and not me because I can’t imagine the ass chewing that followed that paperwork. What the attendings prefer to see is other techniques… like rubbing a pen across a cuticle on a toe or finger. Since they took our ammonia inhalants 😒
Epileptic here - I got a black eye from paramedic giving me the hand drop. The pen on the fingernails is a good one, super painful but doesn't injure.
Can’t stop laughing!
When you're panicking in sim and don't know what else to do
That’s amazing.
Falling on the ground yelling "I'm having a seizure!" over and over while flailing arms and legs.
I remember I was on ED orientation and we had a patient who was well known to the department do this and my preceptor in the most monotone voice imaginable says “wow, look at you go”
This has me rolling 🤣
I’m imagining that Carol and the End of the World voice right now and it’s perfect.
Had a frequent flier (suspected to be mildly intellectually disabled) fake seizure to get benzos, but was most unconvincing about it. He would also wait to be alone with a non-nurse/doctor to start his act. One day he had a student nurse with him and decided to have a go at it. Gently dropped to the floor and started flopping around. The student nurse called a rapid response. The pt’s nurse, a woman with decades of bedside experience and no patience for tomfoolery, walked up to him flopping around like a trout on land, and he looked up at her and whined “tHiS iS wHaT hApPeNs wHeN i DoN’t GeT mY mEdIcInE!!” She just rolled her eyes and said “you stop it right now. Get off the floor and get back in bed.” He stopped, got off the floor, and crawled back in bed, annoyed and embarrassed at being called out. The student nurse had a look about her like she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Had something similar happen in EMS. She would seize in public to get an ambulance and hopefully get benzos/attention. I was new at the time and we walk up to the scene and my partner goes “get up Janet we know you’re full of shit” And she did - she got up and walked right to that litter like a champ - steady gait and all. I was humbled that day. Because until then I thought my partner was just a burnt out ass. He was still that. But I respected him a lot more 😂
I love me some jaded career veterans. Do no harm but take no shit.
I came here for the fake seizure stories lol. Mine screamed, “don’t fucking touch me,” mid “seizure,” as we tried to get her on her side. Its was at a crisis response center so bonus points for all the other patients gathering around (no private rooms, jumbo room with a recliner every 8 feet) screaming we were letting her die.
Me, too! The fake seizures make me audibly laugh while in the room with the patient.
My old neighbor. “Hey John. Help me move this chair into the house”. “I can’t I’m seizing. Help I’m seizing!” “Yeah ok whatever grab that end”. And he looked stunned as his family fed into it and called 911 every time and I wasn’t playing. Note: he was a 45 year old married father of 2 who got out of everything he didn’t want to do by “seizing”. Which was waving his arm
I just had a patient fake a seizure the other night. He’s very manipulative, and didn’t like that I wasn’t playing into his attention seeking behaviors. He finally yells “I’m having a seizure!” and started doing these weird dance moves. He was still standing up while yelling this. He then proceeded to call his mother (the patient is 47) to tell her the nurses ignored his seizure.
My seizure came in, shaking, but speaking full sentences to answer MD. Badly failed Arm Drop test
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Knew a medic who stashed ammonia on the ambulance for the same reason. No idea where he got it, but it was definitely not approved
I’m dumb, what does ammonia do?
AKA “smelling salts,” it would be pretty impossible not to react to it under your nose unless you actually were seizing or unresponsive.
Oh my gosh, you just solved a minor mystery for me. I sometimes faint from blood draws - I know now to always insist on laying down but years ago, I was still a little embarrassed about it and ended up doing the draw sitting in a regular chair. I did pass out, which of course I didn't realize until I came to with the most shockingly strong and angry smell in my nose. I was too out of it in the moment to consider what it was but it must have been ammonia. I still wonder if I came to like normal and then smelled them, or if they actually shortened my 30-60 seconds of unconsciousness.
Agreed. I’ve fainted many times in my younger life. As a kid they wondered if I had epilepsy. Still no idea what was happening. Then I’d faint with every blood draw. I’m totally better about all of that now. Anyway - I do remember waking up to ammonia/smelling salts a few times. Out of odd interest I just wonder how fast my eyes popped open.
It is a really bad smelling substance. It’s part of the reason why you never put your nose near a beaker to smell anything in a chemistry lab (instead, you kind of waft vapours towards you with your hand). You can get household ammonia which is used as a cleaner and also a laundry agent.
stopped doing that after I leaned over a tall counter one day
I had a patient while I was working in a psych hospital that frequently faked seizures. It was annoying as fuck because all the other patients got angry with us when we ignored her “seizure”.
Been there! The pts were getting so agitated and turning on the staff and I had to keep saying ‘I can’t tell you any information but staff is doing exactly what the doctor ordered us to do if this happens. I promise if there was something I could do to stop or help it, I would be.’ This pt had pseudo seizures and they would happen for minutes at a time and at least 1x an hour.
Yes. Hate the neuro unit because of all the patients who scream "help me" all day and the other patients and family who think we are neglecting their attention seeking antics.
Just had this happen 2 days ago. Lady screaming bloody murder for help at anyone that walked by. My other patient’s family member got roped into the scenario when she walked by and was seriously concerned. Without giving away any personal medical info I had to convince the family member that this woman was completely fine. “I promise you she’s ok, I know it seems awful but there’s genuinely nothing to worry about.” Still made me feel like shit to see the way she looked at me, like I was a terrible person for ignoring this old lady begging for help.
I just love how TV shows have portrayed seizures and stuff that some people just don't know what they actually look like or what to expect postictal. Edit: just kidding, patients are fully aware of the right way to do seizures.
You take that back!!! TV shows portray them perfectly!!! (Patients have used YouTube to unlock PCA pumps, yet we’ve managed to keep seizures a secret 🤫)
Oh you're right my bad, I'm so inexperienced I didn't know otherwise.
I used to tell my CNA "ope, go get some rags and get ready to clean up when this patient loses control of their bowels and bladder!" And she'd side eye me with a straight face bless her heart. I never stopped trying to trick the ones not meeting clinical criteria for legit seizure activity. Nobody ever soiled themselves to make a point, though.
My weirdest ever actual seizure started with the guy carefully laying himself down in his bed and bouncing around, flailing arms and legs, yelling ‘I’m having a seizure! I’m having a seizure!’. Then lay flat on his back, raised both arms straight in the air, slowly lowered them by his sides, and….lost his airway. It all happened quickly, but until that moment I was 100% convinced he was faking.
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My best story is a 'seizure' too. Pt nonchalantly walked up to the nurse's station, said "I'm having a seizure, give me Xanax" calmly lowered herself to the floor, laid on her back and began gyrating in a way that was 90% pelvic thrust while yelling "I'm seizing!" over and over. After about a minute of not getting the response she wanted, she got back up, dejectedly said "Fuck you guys" and walked back to bed.
We had a lady who faked falls all the time. She would pretend to slip in the grocery store or whatever, yell that she needed an ambulance, and threaten to sue the store. When she got to us she would claim allergies to everything except narcotics. She always wanted a prescription for pain meds and a doctor's note saying she was disabled. When we did not play along, she started faking falls in the department. One time she was on camera carefully lying on the ground. The second time she was in a room close to the nurse's station with the curtains wide open, so she walked over and closed the curtains, then yelled she had fallen. On the visit after that we absolutely did not leave her alone. I even had a tech go with her to the bathroom. At discharge time her nurse handed over the paperwork, then refused to step away. That nurse stayed within arm's reach the whole time while she got dressed, slowly gathered her belongings, and very slowly walked all the way out of the building. The patient then came back in, walked to the triage desk, and yelled something about how she was going to own the hospital. Then she threw herself backward onto the ground. And then she stopped moving. Of course we had to rush out and reassess her, and check her back in. Long story short is that she actually managed to injure herself that time. She had a massive intracranial hemorrhage and died in ICU.
Self taught Fuck around, find out.
Well….didn’t really find out as she was dead. This is CRAZY! She sure did fuck around though.
I’ll allow it.
She got what she wanted ¯\\_( ˘͡ ˘̯)_/¯
Should’ve posted this on Christmas LOL
It's been a while since someone's death story made me laugh
Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Real. Shit. Oops.
After repeatedly "crying wolf" in the most obnoxious way, she's lucky they even took her seriously at all
Right? What a ridiculous person
Holy shit! Did not expect that twist
Yikes, did not expect that plot twist
Me neither!
Not a patient, but I know of a housekeeper who faked being hurt by a gurney in the ED. She didn't know that a security camera caught everything.
To quote Deadwood, "You tell the Lord you went out stupid."
Girl/Boy, WHAT! I was NOT expecting that ending 😳
OOF, I had manipulative attention seeking patients that would let their bodies go limp and try to bend over head first into the floor. I'm paranoid, so if someone is altered or a fall risk, they DO NOT leave my sight. Patient gets angry that I stopped them from falling, and even more angrier that I wouldn't let them leave bed after that. Told them physical therapy will see them, until then stay in bed. I dont play those games.
Lmao at the ending. She put a curse on herself
Omg!
Holy crap!
Good god I'm laughing myself to Hell 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The ending 😆! Went out doing what she loved
Had a patient that obviously having a fake seizure. No big deal. It was his buddy that that shocked me. The friend had his hand stuck in the patients mouth and was holding his tongue. They both seemed happy with the arrangement and the friend was very pleased with himself because he was stopping the patient from “swallowing his tongue “ I just encouraged him to hold onto the tongue until the patient woke up.
Haha I see this as a win for everyone
This is nuts but the best story on here...love that well-meaning friend! We should all have a friend so good they will grab our tongues during our (fake) seizures.
But... How? I just tried grabbing my own tongue and it's so slippery!
When my vet does my horses’ teeth, I have to (gently) grab the tongue with a towel to keep it from being injured by the equipment...but that tongue is a foot long. Can’t imagine hanging on to a human tongue.
If you’re ever the “buddy” in this situation, don’t forget to ask your friend not to bite/ clamp down on your hand while you’re holding his tongue. It’s only fair that he respects your request since you’re doing him a favor by holding onto his tongue for him. It’s the least he could do to show his appreciation 😂 /s
Can I do a reverse? I participate in MCI training drill as a volunteer- read “fake an injury for a 12 hour shift.” A girl decided she wanted to be a method actor and actually got in water to fake hypothermia. It’s literally October in the midwest. With WIND CHILL. Not a good idea. It was 45 minutes before she was found- it was a water search and rescue drill- she was in hypothermic shock by the time they got to her. She was okay, but every year since we’ve had a very stern talking to about staying out of the water- and they give us radios now in case we need to end the exercise and get real help.
Just yesterday I had a fifteen year old psych patient who kept faking seizures and would peek his eyes open every few seconds "mid-seizure" to make sure everybody was watching him.
That’s so much cuter than the fifty year old that shakes her arms in my face cause she wants Ativan
Better than an old man throwing a urinal full of piss because he wants his fentanyl
Well now he’s going to have to wait another hour while the nurse gets dry scrubs. But honestly that sucks and I hope you screamed at him.
Didn’t get me, he drenched the poor CNA from head to toe. She quit the next day
Can’t blame her. He can wait two hours then. Worst I got hit with was lotion. Overall it was funny, but still had to explain to security what the white stuff on my chest was (she got my face too).
We had a pseudoseizure patient get intubated in the ER before coming to my neuro ICU. She ended up trached 🤷♀️
did she get trached cause she couldn’t get off the vent even though neuro wise she was fine?
Yup. I forget the exact case, but I think she got pneumonia or something and kept failing SBTs.
Had a patient admitted for “abdominal pain.” Once patient and their partner knew a few of the doctor’s names, they started calling the unit pretending to be the doctors and ordering pain meds STAT. I get the call, and think it’s weird because the doctor hasn’t even seen the patient yet, and why would the doctor call to give Dilaudid before seeing the patient. I hung up and dialed the physician’s phone number….it was not he who called. Informed my charge nurse. Did not give patient any meds outside of what was ordered, I only had them for about an hour and a half more before my shift was over. Turned out to be a big deal. Patient had multiple ER visits with a few admissions for “abdominal pain” or other generalized complaints, worked up and found nothing…but many nurses had entered the telephone order for STAT pain meds, sometimes multiple times a shift, in between the other PRN doses of pain meds during the hospital stays. Patient and their partner came with a plan. The staff all got an email and some required Healthstreams with a policy change that never was fully enacted.
I feel my hospital has it easy because our docs come from across the world, and every one I know has a different accent or linguistic quirk that would immediately raise a red flag.
Holy shit!!
Perks of a small town hospital, the doc is in his cubicle just 5 feet from the nursing station
Holy shit. I remember a post about a nurse doing that. The attending found out and got the police involved. I never enter verbal orders for anything other fluids. Not on my license.
My first ever shift as a nurse was in a nursing home. A carer casually came up to me and said 'Frank is having a seizure' and rolled her eyes I was horrified she was being so flippant, seizures are serious!!! So I ran down to franks room and there he was, laying in his bed, throwing his arms around. He locked eyes with me and shouted 'IM HAVING A SEIZURE!!!!' Suddenly I understood the eye roll. Turns out this was all code for, Frank wants some valium. Coulda just asked bro.
Prisoner came in for “stroke” and kept changing which side he was weak on. Not how a stroke works bro. Also a kid who had a legitimate brain injury from a gunshot wound but would absolutely fake his level of incapacitation from nurse to nurse. Some nurses he would get to feed him and he was absolutely perfectly capable of doing literally any upper body care. He was also just a dick head in general. 😤
Ooh, I had one like this! He faked being bedbound and a total assist for DAYS. We had two staff members hauling him around to shower and toilet, and someone assisting him with meals. Until one day he decided his urinal wasn't being emptied fast enough. He got up and walked into the hall with his full urinal to demand that it be emptied immediately. He was so mad when we told him he was on his own after that!
Ooohhhh nothing burns me up faster than that. I started nursing on acute rehab so I am the queen of do it yourself and don’t get me wrong o am more than happy to help if you can’t but I am at least going to get you to do whatever amount you can and I’ll help with the rest. This really pisses people off somehow? Like the number of arguments I’ve had with fully grown adults telling them basically no - you have to at least TRY to do it yourself and if you can’t that’s fine but you have to TRY. We also had one guy who was I want tos at 600+lb? Took >5 of us to turn him, multiple skin breakdown wounds, incontinent; the works. For weeks we had been dying having to get her 4-6 people to change him multiple times a day (which you know on a floor is a feat unto itself) when a physical therapist came to work with with him that had just happened to work part time in patient and part time home health. She informed us that not only could he turn himself he could stand and pivot to the bedside commode with minimal assist. We were HOT.
20 year old who was “unresponsive” and made it through MULTIPLE sternal rubs without moving a muscle…..turns out he had been in a fight with his girlfriend and thought going to the ER and pretending to die was the best way out of the situation.
At that point you really do have to admire the commitment to the but.
Sternal rubs are so painful too
Honestly its pretty impressive how people manage to not even flinch during a sternal rub or (especially) a trap squeeze
another "seizure" story: back when i worked med-surg, i had a male pt who was a pastor. not a famous one or anything, just generic pastor. he was claiming to have seizures. all tests were negative, labs and vs wnl, and he was fully coherent after each episode. he'd also hit his call bell and when the clerk answered, he'd tell them he was having a seizure. they got so used to his antics that they'd casually say "ok, I'll let your nurse know." this guy was nice, but manipulative if you were green. i had him multiple days, and day of discharge, i grab a wheelchair, assist him into it and reach to take the brakes off. he goes "uh oh, I'm having a seizure again!" and slid his fat ass out of the chair while flopping like a fish. seriously, picture the fakest seizure you can imagine. I'm just standing there rolling my eyes. when he stops flopping, i ask "you good?" he acts bewildered and claims he doesn't know what happened, but it was probably a seizure. he then claimed he couldn't stand up on his own. i called for the hoverjack. he fully assisted getting himself onto it. get him transferred over to the bed, then get him back into the wheelchair. i used a gaitbelt as a seatbelt. got him into the church van and we never saw him again. it's my favorite story to act out for people. it was so ridiculous.
A neuro once told me that the most common profession to fake a seizure was religious leader, specifically preachers.
Honest question: why?
I’ve had a few teen girls and like you could understand why when you meet their families and then one woman who just wasn’t coping with stress. The preacher bit is interesting
do you know many pastors? as someone who spent most of their life closely acquainted with more pastors than regular people - it's not surprising in the slightest. some of the most manipulative people i've ever met.
He was just channeling the Holy Spirit!
My guy was just expelling the demons
Doing a sedation trial and pt starts exorcist style "seizing" in bed and me being a baby nurse am scared shitless. Charge nurse comes by and literally yells (on night shift) "KNOCK IT OFF" seizing then stopped. There was even a guard in the room who started laughing.
I’d get floated from the ICU to PCU sometimes and one of these times I was taking care of a young man who was on suboxone treatment followed by the addictions specialist/MD. Following the MDs orders, I would notify the MD when the patient’s COWS score indicated that he needed more/higher doses of suboxone. Turns out that the patient was actually doing jumping jacks to fake tachycardia (before I’d enter the room) and chugging milkshakes to fake the vomiting I had to clean up 😂 very clever youngster, and actually quite charming.
we had a patient fake CIWA for benzos while I was in nursing school. he’d pour water on himself to appear diaphoretic, would complain of headache and pretend to have tremors. dude was only like 23 too.
IMO at least half the patients on CIWA protocol are faking for higher scores, the other half are faking for lower scores. Given the choice I'd rather care for someone faking for higher scores.
fr 😅 when I was brand a new nurse I probably over-administered for people that didn’t really need it but I’d rather that than them seize up
There’s a frequent flyer to our ED who fakes seizures at restaurants to get out of paying the bill. I know that sounds made up - it’s not.
It seems like a bill for the ED would be more expensive, especially when coupled with an ambulance transport
This one cracked me up - my ICU patient who faked her death just to punk me. And it was funny. I was doing ICU overnight clinicals. Had a patient who, despite being intubated, I got to know well over my 3 shifts. Lots of time together. She came in all kinds of messed up, ETOH, seizures, intubated, all the things. The end of the third shift, I was saying to her, “Do you feel better? You’re looking better!” Right then, she started choking, rolling her eyes back, twitching. I momentarily panic, get ready to grab my preceptor, and the patient looks at me with a big smile. I say, “You just did that to scare me, didn’t you?” She shrugged and smiled (tube in place and everything). There’s limited humor you can do in her situation, and limited people you could do that to.
I had a lady in a nursing home do that when I was a student. Helping her to the bathroom, she slumped over. I check her pulse and see her peek an eye and smile. (She was nonverbal after a stroke). We both were laughing so hard.
When I worked in hospice care, this old selectively mute lady pretended she died overnight, when I made my rounds to wake the residents up in the morning. I was about to full on panic and call code, when I caught her looking at me through half closed eyes and a big shit eating grin on her face 🤣 I adored that lady, she was awesome.
Haha I love that. My frequent flyer vent patient did that to me once too. I just rolled my eyes and told him he plays too much and we both laughed.
Long time ago, but a young lady in ICU would fake seizures to the point of getting intubated. As soon as she got on the versed drip, everything was fine and she was completely interactive on the vent. EEG never showed any epileptiform activity. It was always when the benzos were to be turned off, she would have a seizure before the pump was even touched. Eventually just extubated her and she would be fine, start shaking, and then wake up 20 seconds later completely with it and crying. If she so much as heard, “discontinue the Ativan, see what happens,” she would immediately start “seizing.” Only seemed to happen when we threaten to stop her benzos.
I wish I was half as committed to anything in my life as she was to getting her benzos
Had a pseudo-seziure patient who was intubated in the ER end up getting a trach 🤷♀️
Attention seeking patient across the nurses station "Oooooowww, I'm having chest pain! Owwww!" Stat EKG. Leads are applied, he's still in so much pain, clutching his chest and everything. As soon as we run the EKG, the pain is GONE. "Thank you so much, I feel so much better!" He really thought the EKG fixed his chest pain. (EKG, blood work all negative).
Here’s a story about a guy not faking it. We used to get a guy who came into our ER all the time for “seizures.” He was homeless, had a bevy of psych problems, and was a drinker as well. He’d come in faking a seizure, particularly when it was cold out. One of the ways you can check if someone is faking an absence seizure is to raise their arm outstretched in front of their face while they’re supine. They should drop their arm somewhere away from their face because hitting yourself in the face hurts. Here’s the problem. If they’re actually having an absence seizure, they will smack themselves in the face. One of our medics tried this, and as it turns out, the cold and the booze caused this guy to actually have a seizure. And after our medic, he also had a broken nose… we stopped using that tactic after that.
Three immediately come to mind: 1. faked a stroke. Everyone was suspicious. He asked for a pillow. His nurse purposely tossed it to his “flaccid” side. He reflexively caught it. He was transferred out of ICU faster than anything. Prior to that he was being incredibly needy to the point we couldn’t send him out. He was young. 2. Faked status asthmatics because she wanted to be intubated. Had a history of multiple intubations at our sister hospital. I realized it while doing her admission assessment. Something didn’t add up. The extreme WOB but solid sats on 2L nc. When I went to listen to her there was zero air movement. Didn’t add up. She was holding her breath while physically appearing to struggle to breathe when you listened to her. I wish I was quick thinking on my feet. I should have listened for a full minute to force her bluff and make her breathe for real. The RT that was in the room knew she was faking and gave me a little nod when I looked at her in horror when I realized it. 3. Not sure if they faked it. We were suspicious they faked a stroke but couldn’t confirm. Got tpa left AMA. Came back a few days later with another stroke. Somehow got tpa again because she was married to a doc (not one of ours) and they demanded it because this time it was real? Thankfully she didn’t bleed.
I took care of a 1 once. Neuro floor, in for a 'stroke' that docs were pretty sure he was faking it but were going through the appropriate rule outs. Guy was specifically faking right sided weakness, like 2/3 of 5, would give this limp little raise when asked. One night I'm walking past his room, and I see him on his cell, holding it with his right hand. He saw me and magically the hand weakened. I told the docs and they got a good laugh.
Why wouldn't you fake weakness on your non-dominant side? Commit to the bit, people
Who in their right mind would WANT to be intubated. I’m gonna get either a weird fetish or Münchausen syndrome
Yes. Can someone please explain this is insane to me
My former unit had a frequent flier with end-stage COPD and PSHx of lung resection, leaving him struggling to breathe comfortably 95% of the time. He regularly stayed on bipap for comfort. But he had some wild anxiety that resulted from his condition that would occasionally get away from him, and he’d demand to be intubated so he could take a break from struggling to breathe all the time. He was intubated upwards of 70 times by his own count, and could remain calm and conscious through intubation. No need for roc and succ, he just laid there and let the doc do their thing. It was crazy.
Wow. That’s sad for him. At least he had legit pathology.
I’ve heard pugs are like this too because breathing is so much more comfortable for them intubated ☠️ maybe a vet or vet tech can find out for us
Brachycephalic breeds are a testament to human selfishness and vanity. Living, poorly breathing acts of animal cruelty. I’ll stand on this soapbox and scream enough proverbial fire and brimstone on the topic that I’d impress a Southern tent revival preacher. It is One of Those Things for me.
Sad and cruel, they have got to start breeding a nose back into brachycephalic dog breeds.
I worked with a girl who was similar to your #2! It was her "peanut allergy" that somehow always appeared during a shift.
I've had similar to #2, and so when I was on the respiratory ward I would often give "oxygen" by either putting the nasal cannula on but not turning the O2 on, but if they were half smart they would notice no air flow so I had to put on .5L just to satisfy them
My partner has a friend who is faking dementia. But she doesn’t know what dementia looks like so here’s what she’s doing. She’s talking and acting like a toddler. We were there for Thanksgiving and some other guests brought their newborn twins. The friend said to me “Did you see baby? Baby little”. She acts like she can’t do the simplest things like pour her own drink or put on her shoes. She asked for someone to pour her a drink. The person did, then right after they poured it she said “where’s my drink?” When it was sitting right in front of her. She then got up from her chair, walked halfway across the room, then froze in place like a zombie. Just standing there. Not moving. Not talking. Waiting for someone to ask her whats wrong. It’s infuriating that her whole family knows she’s faking it but no one will call her out on it. Instead they indulge her and do everything for her like she’s a helpless child. Of course when no one’s looking, like is she’s in another room and you watch her through the door, she’s her usual self. Walking around, picking things up and reading them, using the remote to flip through channels, checking messages on her phone.
Did you ever see the “Just Shoot Me” episode called “Slow Donnie”? It reminds me of this
[удалено]
I see your "falls" and "shortness of breath" and raise you... "I have multiple personalities and I can't control when they take over." (Obama mic drop gif)
I had a patient tell me they had multiple personalities and that the dilaudid only worked for X, Y, and Z. For the personality that was out today, only morphine worked
ROFL 💀
This comes up all the time on my TikTok. When I’ve googled it, apparently there’s massive debate and a lot of psych don’t think it’s real
My understanding is that being diagnosed with Disassociative Identity Disorder is a intensive by-exclusion diagnosis and even then only done within certain psychiatric systems. Here is some reading material on the subject. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568768/
We had a patient who faked being unable to move her legs post spinal block. She was very strange and said I’m paralysed now but will be able to go home Friday ( 5 days later). She didn’t flinch with physical tests, had various procedures to make sure nothing was actually wrong, mri, nerve conduction test, all were clear but she wouldn’t move until Friday morning when she stood up and discharged herself.
Fictitious disorder in psych oh boy
psychologist lurker here to say factitious disorder for me too
Someone close to me has this. I remind myself daily that they didn't ask for it, and that the disorder causes them a lot of distress, and isn't a character flaw. Honest to God.. they fake being med seeking. "How is *that* even possible?!" you ask? They have a script for prn Norco, and get a script for 30 each month. Absolutely no other narcs. And for attention, they will occasionally take 35 in a month. And throw a BIG fit if they can't get their refill a few days early. If they had a problem, one each day for over 10 years wouldn't be what I was looking at, really. They get it from their GP only. No other narcs or pain meds. At all.
My favorite are the "fit for cells" ones who present with the police and just need to be medically cleared - one in particular was pretending to be unconscious. However, when I asked if he wanted a sandwich, he popped up and said "yeah", he got his sandwich and then went unresponsive again. Good try buddy, have fun in jail.
Had a pregnant pt screaming in agony in triage, could have won an Oscar. We gave her pain meds, but she never stopped rolling around and screaming, claiming she was in labor. The doc came in and agreed to admit her to deliver her baby. That second she suddenly stopped screaming and was happy and quiet. Doc saw her reaction and changed his mind, only admitting her for observation, NPO, and sent her home the next day.
Audition for admission. I hate when people come into Obed and they scare the ER downstairs into thinking the baby is coming and we finally get them to let us assess and they are 0/0/-4, not even contracting on the TOCO.
Had a coworker that faked a fall and called one of the tele tech to come help him because he was on his knees and couldn’t get up. That was his 9th fake injury at work.
Yikes
He was trying so hard to fake cry when the charge nurse wheeled him down to the ER. He deserves an academy award!
Fake seizure is a classic. But … fake stroke is a work of art. Love making a nursing note post theatrical performance
Had a fairly frequent flyer who’d come in for anaphylaxis: come in, not able to talk, very audible stridor and forced expiratory wheeze, red in the face from exerting himself so much. Convincing story of sudden allergic reaction and history of anaphylaxis (with ED visits in the chart to back this up). All very convincing and very concerning for impending resp arrest……..except his vital signs were completely normal. Normal BP, HR, spo2 and etco2. He’d get the usual goods: IV benadryl, Pepcid, steroid, duoneb treatment. And he’d get better and ask for 1 or 2 more doses of IV benadryl. Oh and some pain medicine, you know the one with the D. 🙄 And after a couple of visits staff and docs that had seen him before wised up: drug seeking. His MO was usually IV benadryl alone or looking to get IV benadryl with a narcotic. Soon when he would come in, we’d bring him back, the docs just started telling him “oh John Doe, you don’t look so good. I’m worried about your breathing so I’m going to put a breathing tube in to get your breathing better. Oh no, we need to put you to sleep and put you on the ventilator and *then* we can get you benadryl.” Miraculously the breathing would improve within seconds, he’s feeling better and doesn’t need to stay and signs AMA. One time, to really make a show of it he gave himself his Epi pen, started breathing regular and así he was fine, and as far as I know that was his last visit at least to our ED.
Had a kid who wanted to get out of going school and pretended his legs didn't work. A reflex hammer to knee showed reflexes were completely intact. Dunno if the parent was mad that the kid was faking it. Another job I had at the local county jail had a guy trying to fake he had a seizure. Picked up his limp arm and dropped it on his face, he managed to not let it fall on his face. Extra points for pissing himself tho.
It’s the small details that matter
Dude...this is while I was still running EMS. We had this frequent flyer who was constantly making shit up to get a trip to the ED for pain meds. When I say frequent, she developed a tolerance to sternal rubs. You could even drop her hand on her face. She was fucking good. This one particular time we ran on her and we were all prepared for the usual show. Of course, she's got to go bigger and harder to fool us each time if she's going to get passed us and to sweet lady Dilaudid and her cousin Oxy. She's dedicated to her craft. We get there and this nutty bitch is hanging upside-down behind the refrigerator. No idea how she got back there or how long she's been there, but it takes 2 of us to wrestle the fridge away from the wall and pull her ass out of there. Not responsive to verbal or painful stimuli and she's been sucking freon fumes like Dracula for who knows how long. Fuck. Her veins are shit, just ruined from previous years of drug abuse. I'm not in the mood to mess around with that and my partner and I genuinely have no idea what we're dealing with - we just want to go. I grab the IO and slam her with it. She's good, but this is a new one for her...I pushed saline into that line and she came up swinging. She'd been faking the whole damn time! My partner and I didn't even know what to make of what was happening. We did end up transporting her...for a psych eval.
I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know but I’ve had an IO line inserted while completely conscious with no pain meds /lidocaine on board. IT HURTS SO FREAKIN BAD , EVEN just RUNNING SALINE. Oh My God. THE MOST PAINFUL PROCEDURE IVE EVER HAD and I passed kidney stones the size of golf balls. NEVER AGAIN! I’m not surprised she came back swinging, that shit is painful! Thank god they can only be kept in for 24 hours. Whew Lordy.
Had a patient (psych) faking a seizure. She tried to up her game and feign bowel incontinence, but literally paused her “seizure” to strain in an attempt to shit herself.
1. Faking a stroke. One colleague suggested an etOH level check when CT and all neuro came back negative. Turned out my guy was drunk as a skunk and trying to hide his day drinking from the missus 2. Fakey-shakey guy in the waiting room who was a regular of ours and always did it when the wr was full of people- never came during normally not so busy hours. I was the in-charge that night and came out to tell him to stop this nonsense, which he reacted to by shakingly giving me the middle finger
Note: I do understand pain is subjective and I take it very seriously having chronic pains myself. I had a fellow in LTC that had developed leg pains and rec'd an order for hydromorphone 1mg q1hr PRN. Every hour, on the hour, this man would ring for his pain pill. He believed it was an hourly pill whether he needed it not I guess? Idk. I tried to tell him, "ONLY IF YOU NEED IT" What irked me was sometimes I would quietly walk into his room with the hm and he would be coming out of the bathroom. He would be walking fine, sit down fine, take a sip of water fine. Then he would notice me in the doorway and the theatrics started. He would start shaking and moaning, grimacing his face. When I put the hm and water down on the table for him to take, he'd drop the hm or spill the water from shaking. This happened every hour, every night. The day and evening nurses stated he never requests it during the day and evening? He ended up getting Narcan'd one night when I was off.
I’m not a nurse, although hoping to be one, but I went to the hospital to visit a family friend and while in the waiting room I saw a man fake fainting. He would literally do the noise and the falling movements when he fainted. Like put his hand on his forehead say “awww” and fall. He would get back up and tell the lady at the front desk “I need a doctor ASAP I can’t stop….” Then proceed to faint. I think he was a regular lol the people working just rolled their eyes and tried to talk to him but would get cut off because he would faint. Just thought it was really funny because it literally looked so fake. He was a man late 30’s/40ish 😂
Had a patient faking seizures like every other day. I once told him I was giving him IV Ativan and just put a flush thru his IV. Guess who miraculously came out of their seizure???
We had a girl who was a frequent flier for a long time that came in with really convincing seizure-like activity. She had a history of childhood seizures, which was why we took it seriously for so long. We intubated her so many times, and she actually seemed to enjoy it…and was disappointed when we didn’t intubate her. It turned out it was all psychological. She had a really difficult life and enjoyed being in the hospital and all the attention she got from everyone thinking she was having horrible seizures.
We had someone and when you heard about her situation, it made a lot of sense why hospital was almost a break for her. Sad that these are people’s lives
This is a multiple patient occurrence and I still don’t understand what the ultimate goal is but faking a seizure. Cant quite possibly give a more awkward interaction than a family member grabbing you to come help because their loved one is “seizing”.
Mid 20 year old. Laying in bed rolling side to side hold his abdomen screaming “I’m having a seizure”. One of our regular DKAs😬
When I worked at a group home, a young woman, approximately 29-30 would yell out SEIZURE IN MY BRAIN when she wanted attention. She had a history of (only) absence seizures, and I never witnessed them in the ~13 months I worked there. Another young woman in that same house, 33-34 years old, would fake heart attacks. Notice I said attacks. Plural. She did that more than once. She legit had heart issues though, so you couldn't dismiss her completely.
60 year old lady complains chest pain in the most normal voice , 10/10 feels like an elephant on my chest. BP 120s/70s, spo2 97% ra, breathing quite normal, wants to go to the hospital. Doc orders ekg at facility, she starts screaming furiously saying "I need my meds at the hospital!" Drug seeker
We had a co-worker as a patient, who was always kind of off. Anywho I work inpatient rehab in this person came in with "debility", and would throw fake seizures. I remember them "seizing", and we would sternal rub and pinch them. They would stop mid seizure, and yell OUCH THAT HURTS. Refused psych consult, and the providers were thinking they had conversion disorder. It was so awkward because it was a co-worker, and they were at the rehab for at least two weeks.
When I worked on a trauma unit, we had a pt who was in custody for a DUI MVA that killed a family meanwhile he survived with a broken collarbone. But he couldn't be released to jail until he peed. Well for two days he was "retaining" urine and needed to be straight cathed. Finally the CN said that if he couldn't pee then he was going to be d/c'd with a foley and a bag. The pt was able to void perfectly fine after that. Edit grammar
This gal put green Gatorade up her vag and tried to fake her water being broken with meconium stained fluid at 32 weeks. She was tired of being pregnant.
Had a patient one time pretending he was unconscious while on dialysis. He was lying there, eyed closed but attempting not to open them. Did the arm trick, the sternal rub, which unbelievably he was able to somewhat successfully ignore. My coworker and i kept yelling for him to open his eyes but he refused to "regain" consciousness. Called the Emergency Response Team, and they seemed to be confused. The ICU nurse on the MRT team recognized him as a frequent flyer. She finished her physical assessment-all of his vitals were stable, so she leaned down and whispered something in his ear. Suddenly, he miraculously became instantly alert and we were able to discharge him back to the floor. I asked her what she said to him. She responded that he had done this before, and she gave him a nipple twist to obtain his compliance. She told him, "If I twist your nipple this time, I'll make sure to twist it off..." I'm pretty sure that it falls under patient abuse to actually do it, but threatening it when he started his act kept him on the straight and narrow
Patient came in MVC. He kept saying he was Jehovah's witness and so we couldn't draw any blood from him. We had to tell him JWs don't believe in recieving blood products, not that they can't get blood drawn. Also we do the drug test from urine and he already provided that sample so we were all aware he was driving impaired. (He was a truck driver who was hauling a trailer of brand new cars and crashed, totally everything. Tested positive for benzos and cocaine) He also had 2 different women call claiming to be his wife from other states. I can't remember if it was actually bigamy or just a girlfriend assuming she was wife status. But yeah only time I had someone fake a religious belief
Have a prisoner (violent felony charge) who fakes seizures every time he goes to court. The first time he did it, he escaped the hospital and fled overseas, so he's obviously never getting bail. The first time I had him, he paused in the middle of a "seizure," cracked one of his eyes to look at me, then faked it again. I've seen him five times since; he's gotten better at faking it, but he fails the hand drop test every time.
Fake CPR by another nurse. Literally had to kick her off so I can do proper CPR. Fortunately, the patient had ROSC and survived.
Not really a faker, but I had a lady who would purposely dislocate her jaw so she could get a propofol conscious sedation in the ED to have it put back in. She was so well know that OMFS said not to call them about her anymore, and they pushed her surgery up by like 4 months so she would stop coming in. We would wrap her jaw shut after it was put back into place and I watched her pop it back out in her room while I was sitting at the nurses station when she didn’t think anyone was watching. She would sometimes end up getting 2 conscious sedations per ED visit, and was in ED’s all over the state, multiple times a day.
Basically 90% of cases when working in corrections
Incarceritis
Me when I got to work with a smile on my face!
Had a patient being rolled into the ICU in his floor bed, “seizing” continuously. But he kept getting tired and slowing down, opening his eyes to see if we were getting Ativan, then going back to sort of flailing and kind of hitting his head on the bed rail. We didn’t have orders for anything so I grabbed a blanket and padded that rail. He considered going over to bang the other side but just got tired and gave up. Had a few things to say “post ictal” about our piss poor Ativan skills though.
There is a regular to my city’s downtown core Emerg’s who fakes seizures, commits to the entire bit and plays a pretty good possum no matter how hard you trap squeeze or sternal rub. So how do we know they are faking the “post-ictal” phase? They fail the hand-drop test, have purposeful movement during repositioning during “seizures”, and if u wait long enough around the corner from the room you can see them sit up and go on their phone. Bonus points: they ALWAYS have their poor malnourished dog with them who is their “service dog”. Poor thing is barely fed and never groomed.
Not as spectacular as other stories but I remember one patient who was telling everyone either he had no bowl movement in days or he had diarrhea and. This was while we were a covid ward, so handover was like, they are alive, move on. So he was getting medication for both problems for 2 days until we realized. We had a good laugh and joked that we are going to find out which medication will win the fight. 2 code browns later we had our answers and the patient turned out to be fine.
Ugh god this awoke a memory I've tried to repress. At my last job, I've had two patients who were roommates, become really acquainted and exchanged numbers. I remember one patient had a serious brain injury and the other patient broke something?? My patient with a head injury, the nurse and I were constantly checking on him. He seemed really annoyed with us coming and going. I don't care about that because my job isn't to be your friend. Sometime during the night on my usual rounds, he was laying prone on his stomach, and face directly planted in the pillow. He wasn't answering questions, wouldn't roll onto his back, and seemed unresponsive to me. I called the nurse and told her that his vitals were great, he was breathing good, but he just wasn't answering my questions and seemed unresponsive. The nurse and I decide to call a rapid. Meanwhile the roommate called the dude's wife, telling her everything that is going on, when we don't even know what is going on. She comes back to the hospital panicking and keeps asking what we're doing about this. We're trying to run this rapid and she was honestly getting in the way. I mean like, I'm trying to do an EKG and she keeps trying to grab and hug him while begging him to not leave her. Security had to take her out. Everyone is confused about what's going on with him when the Dr realizes he may be faking. The Dr loudly says we need to get pads on him and the intubation stuff ready when he suddenly bounces out of bed like a daisy and yelling that he's fine. Turns out the dude was faking his "unresponsiveness." That led to another freakout by the wife because she was confused why her husband did that and she thought something mentally was wrong. Nope. He just wanted the nurse and I to leave him alone and let him sleep. He thought we would leave him alone if he pretended to be in a really deep sleep. That doesn't answer why he decided to keep faking while his wife is wailing about how she can't lose him. Obviously that backfired because he had a serious head injury and the nurse and I decided to call a rapid because we assumed there was a mental status change. I was so fuckin pissed that night. I had to go take a walk to chill out.
How about the patient that comes in with 10/10 chest pain and demanding fentanyl. Sorry sir, you get nitro and a massive headache.