[l.rae]

Originally posted by yannadey
the other night had a seizure faker I gave her the call light & told her call when it was over, she took the button asked me if I'm going to call the doctor told her no the doctor will be coming in the morning she wanted to know what time then she said "I guess I'll wait till then to have my seizure all I could say was yep that would be the perfect time of course I did give the doctor & on coming nurse a heads up on what to expect. I was told the following night about the oscar worthy performance they received

l should have posted this comment on the mantra thread........"STUPIDITY IS MY JOB SECURITY"......gets me thru the day with pts like this

[Mimi Wheeze]

Oh, Pappy, that just sucks. I'm so sorry your career was cut short and you can't even hold your grandbaby. I've lurked on this site for a long time, and I have always admired you. (and your posts ) Hang in there!

AI YI YI! I'm a nursing student whose head just spins while reading some of these posts. On one hand you have fakers, on the other hand you have debilitating illnesses like Pappy's. How on earth will I ever gain the wisdom to tell the difference?

Another thing.. why on earth would anybody who wants attention fake their way into a hospital of all places? Let's face it, there are easier and less painful and expensive ways just to get attention.

[tattooednursie]

I have a resident in the LTC that banged her hands against the wall saying "SEIZURE! SEIZURE!" I think it was a temper tantrum! lol

Once with my job on the fire crew I was at a fire training and I put on an SCBA tank to enter a burning house. I had a panic attack while I was in there. Acording to the medical personnel standing by that escorted me to safety, and took my vitals . . . my vitals were BP 230/100 P 120 I forgot what the resperations were . . . and my O2 stat was like 80 something, and I blacked out and started shaking really bad. I think it was probably a pettit mall seizure . . . and ya know what, I don't remember doing that! No one can say seizure while they are having a seizure . . . its just like one of natures laws!

[bagladyrn]

Had a psych pt. admitted to our unit one time (hearing impaired psych) as deaf with amnesia. After several days, nursing staff was reporting that this individual was hearing (always hanging out at the nursing station when we were discussing "juicy" topics with our back to him). Finally after 2 weeks, fingerprints were obtained and run. Turns out he was an escaped prisoner from a nearby jail, who had a deaf sister (knew some sign) and had found a perfect place to hide out!

[RN-PA]

Last week we had a patient who's a frequent flyer admitted with exacerbation of Asthma. The day shift nurse was giving me report when the pt's Pulmonologist showed up. While auscultating lungs, both the doc and nurse said they noticed the patient making wheeze sounds in her throat on inspiration AND expiration, and with asthma, the wheezes are heard only on expiration. The Dr. just rolled his eyes and said, "What can ya do? You aren't sure if it might not be stridor." I say, get a psych consult.

We also get prisoners from time to time, and I had one admitted with abdominal pain. He went through all kinds of tests and when it looked like they were getting ready to discharge him, he started complaining about excruciating tooth pain. In the meantime, he was getting all the sodas, juice, ice cream etc, he wanted, his girlfriend visited constantly, and TV in bed 24 hrs/day.

We also get a frequent flyer who comes in with abd. pain and claims of bloody diarrhea at home. They never find anything wrong, but she's out at the nurse's station whenever her Demerol is due.

Of course we treat them all in a respectful, non-judgemental way, but I don't understand doctors who continually enable this behavior.

[NURS4GOD]

I worked with a miraculous neurologist once who "induced" a "seizure" by massaging the "SEIZURE NERVES" located on the back of her neck with 15 alcohol prep pads!!!!!!!!! She was told that he would try to induce this seizure by this special massage and within a few seconds, she was in full "seizure". I tried so hard not to laugh in front of her! When we were done, the doc walked out and said "Isn't modern medicine a miracle? DISCHARGE HER!"
Becky

[Momto2Boys]

Too Funny!!!

[JNJ]

Not quite on topic, but it's quite a story:
Close friend of mine, RN of many years pediatric experience, ends up taking a fragile looking child to the on-floor nurses room with her to lunch as he looked so sad as his mommy needed to leave the hospital for a while. Two-year-old is on TPN, with nothing by mouth related to long history of vomiting, no real Dx yet.

During her lunch, the kid grabs a cracker and wolfs it down. My friend is alarmed - she's broken all the rules. (However, I'd trust her instincts over rules most days). Kid is smiling, asking for more. She's going off to confess, when suspicion strikes.

To cut the story short, ipecac found in mother's bag after mother covertly observed to take something from her bag and give it to the child. Mother taken off by law enforcement, screaming at my friend. Kid now in foster care; huge legal trauma for my friend who started the (correct) procedure for dealing with such an incident.

Horrible incident, but the RN probably saved the kid's life long term, and certainly his health. Took it's toll on my friend.

Not sure if Munchausen by proxy - as this is officially called - is really a law enforcement matter. Seems to me the mother needs a psyche consult more than anything.

[maizey]

Years ago, when I was new to the ER in our little community hospital, a patient came in via husbands truck having a "full blown granmal seizure". Took four nurses to get her out of the truck and when we laid her on the gurney she kicked me in the chest. I wasn't too upset, seeing as she was having a seizure. I called the doc on call and told him who and what it was and he said "she's faking". I said, "no she's not". He said, "yes she is". I said "she better not be, she kicked me in the chest". He then laughed and said "she also always has head lice when she comes in". OMG, she was throwing her head all over us during her "seizure activity". Doc comes in, makes big deal out of giving her this new miracle drug for seizures that stops them immediately but that it burns a bit, He personally gives her an injection of normal saline in the old gluteal and she immediately stops seizure. She was faking. I was mad. She could have really hurt me when she kicked me and what about our back getting her "seizing" body out of that truck.

[Allison S.]

Regarding RSD:

I'm not being callous. We treat this all the time, and treat all cases as though they are real, even when the pain is the only symptom and even when the pain is only evident when we start talking about sending the child back to school or something like that.

We do, however, have kdis who have made a life out of being comfortably ensconsed in the hospital.