We learned this week that the local woman who the national press are calling a “Beauty Queen” will plead not guilty to felony charges of lying and scamming her family, friends, and the community out of thousands of dollars to support her treatment and related expenses for cancer.
According to the report, she does not and has not had cancer.
In an elaborate scheme that apparently started in her late teens, this troubled young woman began telling people that she had been diagnosed with cancer. She fabricated signs and symptoms of cancer, made up details of treatment and trips to see various doctors and, at one point, is alleged to have shaved her head to make it look as if she was receiving chemo-therapy treatments.
One of the local news reports suggested that at some point in this elaborate scheme, a relative or a friend drove this woman to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore and watched said Beauty Queen go up the elevator, ostensibly for an appointment. The friend waited in the lobby for several hours until the woman came back down the elevator after reportedly having an extensive treatment session.
As she wore her pageant sash to community events and was held up as a role model for children and cancer patients alike, she remained silent.
Someone eventually tipped off the authorities who found that the woman was not a patient and had not been receiving cancer treatments at either Johns Hopkins or Geisinger Medical Center (another facility that the scammer mentioned in the fuzzy details she offered about her illness).
To the many of us who have had friends and relatives succumb to the devastating diagnosis of cancer (or who are fighting it themselves) it’s hard not to be outraged. I can only imagine what those who donated their time, their talents or their treasure to support this young woman must have felt when the truth came out.
It is a sad story but one that is also frightening. Someone with a mental disorder so entrenched in their personality to the extent they can look someone in the eyes, say they have cancer and take money from others obviously needs some serious help.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM), Factitious Disorder is defined as when a person “intentionally produces, feigns or exaggerates the symptoms of a disease, illness or psychological condition with the aim of assuming the patient role. The motive varies but may include a desire to seek comfort and attention, attempt to gain access to drugs, or a fascination with the medical field. The sufferer may have a personality disorder and/or unresolved issues from childhood, such as physical or emotional abuse, or early detachment. These motives differ from those of malingering in which one fakes symptoms to gain disability payments or medical leave.”
I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been stung by people with what the experts call Factitious Disorder, formerly known as Munchausen’s Syndrome.
Early in my career, I worked with a young man who seemed to surround himself with drama.
First, there was the armed robbery that took place on his apartment on Allen Street. He alleged that two gunmen entered his apartment and held him up at gun point. I remember my co-workers and I were very concerned for him. The story made the papers and he said the police were investigating. Any questions asked about the incident later on were “too traumatic to talk about” so most of us let it go.
Not long after, he shared he was diagnosed with cancer. People started organizing meals and fundraisers. As his physical appearance and energy on the job stayed consistent, most of us felt he was really fortunate to “have caught it early” and were happy to see that his life wasn’t over because of his diagnosis.
Oddly, enough, I was working in a mental health facility at the time. When some of the nursing staff started pointing out that the medical information wasn’t adding up, it wasn’t too long after that he left to take another job. The last I heard he was cancer free, healthy, and undoubtedly scheming up a new way to get attention.
Factitious disorder was formerly called Munchausen Syndrome after Baron Von Munchausen, who was a character in literature (based loosely on a real guy) who was known for telling outrageous stories and tall tales about his exploits in the military. Many years ago, I met a patient where I was working who had been hospitalized over 70 times in 4 different countries with a variety of fake illnesses. His quote to the treatment team was “I can screw up any lab test you can give me to make it look like I have something serious.”
The standard joke about college students lying about their grandmother dying again this semester doesn’t quite hit the threshold for Munchausen Syndrome. However, lying for a whole semester about cancer does.
I was the academic advisor and instructor for a student several years ago who mentioned he was being treated for cancer when I asked why he was missing so many classes. He asked me to be discreet and not let his fellow students know as he didn’t “want them to treat me any differently.” Of course, I respected his request.
In a totally unrelated conversation with his mother who called with financial aid questions, my spider senses went on alert when she didn’t mention his illness. When I asked about his health, she said “He had asthma as a kid. Why do you ask?” Long story short, he eventually fessed up that the cancer had been a lie. With the help of the Office of Student Conduct at PSU, we addressed his academic dishonesty. Several semesters later, one of my colleagues told her he was dealing with a significant medical issue.
Leopards, as they say, rarely change their spots, and usually only after they have had intensive therapy.
We’ve all called off sick when we were probably healthy enough to go to work. Students using illness or even the death of a grandparent to get out of work, while morally troubling, can likely be chalked up to immaturity. Worse yet are those cases in which parents make up lies or illnesses about their children to either gain financially or to get attention.
Taking money from people or expecting other benefits – or just to get attention – by saying one has cancer is pathological.
