The following news report about a woman who pretended to have
cancer-and probably imagined she had Lyme disease-reminded me of a
relatively new phenomenon called virtual factitious disorder.
WZZM13 ONLINE - ABC TELEVISON for ALL OF WEST MICHIGAN
Emotional sentencing for woman who faked cancer diagnosis
Created: 11/28/2006
A woman who lied when she claimed she has cancer says she hopes people
who donated money to her cause will forgive her.
Tuesday afternoon, 24-year old Kyleen Hipp was sentenced to 5 months in
jail and 3-years probation for obtaining thousands of dollars under
false pretenses.
She claimed she had terminal cancer. The judge says donations at a
casino club fundraiser and other events may have raised as much as
$35,000.
He says Hipp spent most of the money on what he calls "riotous living."
In court Hipp apologized, "I'm deeply sorry for the deception and pain
and hurt I know I have caused people. I know I am responsible for my
actions and I am fully prepared to accept the consequences. I just hope
the people I care about and people I've hurt can find it in their
hearts to forgive me."
The judge says- Hipp did spend $900.00 of the donated money to treat
her Lyme Disease.
He also said Hipp may serve her sentence under house arrest while
wearing an electronic tether.
The judge suggests Hipp make restitution by donating the amount of
money she collected to the American Cancer Society.
Denise Grady (NYT) wrote an excellent piece about this twisted online
behavior (April 23, 1998). Here's an excerpt:
A MONK who had taken a vow of poverty could not seek treatment for a
rapidly advancing type of cancer and faced death with fear and
loneliness. A 23-year-old woman, hospitalized for an eating disorder,
suffered a stroke. A teen-age girl mourning the death of one premature
baby gave birth to another, tinier and more fragile than the first.
Three lost souls with heart-rending stories, they clicked their way to
Internet support groups, where they elicited outpourings of sympathy
from fellow sufferers.
All three were incorrigible fakers. They lied their way into networks
of people with real troubles who had come to care about one another and
to think of themselves as communities. For months the frauds strung
along their on-line audiences, which included many people who were
living through genuine crises and tragedies but who had nonetheless
extended themselves to comfort others.
Read the complete story here.
Rebecca Wurtz, writing in Clinical Infectious Diseases (1998
Apr;26(4):924-32), presented more than a dozen fascinating cases of
psychiatric diseases initially presenting as infectious diseases.
Here's the abstract from her paper:
Although many psychiatric diseases have somatic manifestations, some
focus on fears or delusions of infection. When a patient with a
psychiatric basis for an apparent infection presents to an infectious
disease physician, the physician may find the problem confusing,
amusing, and ultimately frustrating until the psychiatric basis for
disease is recognized. Some of these psychiatric disorders can be
treated and controlled with medication and psychotherapy, although
patients may resist psychiatric referral. This article reviews examples
of psychiatric disorders in patients who present to the infectious
disease physician, including factitious infection, malingering,
obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias, veneroneuroses, somatization
disorders, and delusional infection. The role that physicians play in
amplifying these disorders is reviewed. Strategies for referral to
psychiatric services are also discussed. Patients with a psychiatric
disease are seen in infectious disease practices more commonly than
physicians realize.
It's a wacky world on the World Wide Web.
http://ld-50.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=50
