
37 Patients That Decided To Lie To Their Doctor And Paid The Hefty Price
Interview With ExpertThere’s probably no worse time to lie than at the doctor's. While it’s understandable that people don’t want to feel judged, embarrassed, or lectured by their health provider, even a half-lie when it comes to our health can have some detrimental consequences.
To prove that telling nothing but the truth and only the truth to the doctors is crucial, we gathered some of the most unbelievable stories about patients who did the opposite. Scroll down to find them below, but be warned that some of them get quite intense.
While you're at it, don't forget to check out a conversation with Dr. Cortney S. Warren, ABPP, board-certified clinical psychologist and author of Letting Go of Your Ex and Lies We Tell Ourselves: The Psychology of Self-Deception, who kindly agreed to talk with us more about lying patients.
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One of my relatives had a bad reaction to amoxicillin as a child; Puffy face, trouble breathing, emergency room visit bad.
Fast forward fifteen years, she's off at college and has come down with some sort of infection.
She, however, didn't inform the campus health people, because, and I quote, "Allergies are caused by a bad diet, and since I'm a vegetarian I shouldn't have them any more."
Yeah. They prescribed her amoxicillin, and, if it weren't for her roommate being home to call an ambulance she'd have been dead.
Paramedic here, one common one is when older guys are having chest pain and we want to give them nitroglycerin paste/pills to help the chest pain.
One thing that doesn't mix well is nitro and Viagra...it causes a blood pressure drop that can be really dangerous.
We always ask and make it really clear that if we give the nitro and they are taking Viagra and similar meds that they could die. It usually takes 3 or 4 warnings in a row before the guy will admit it.
Early on I made the mistake of trusting a guy after just a couple mentions of how dangerous it would be.
I sprayed the nitro under his tongue and he said "does generic Viagra count?"
F**k.
At one point his BP wasn't even registering on the box cuff, it was bad. I thought I was going to get screamed at by my doctor, but he just laughed and said it was so common that he wasn't upset, and gave me a couple ideas on how to make it clear how dangerous it was to the patient.
When patients lie and say they haven't eaten anything prior to elective surgery when they have. I caught a patient snaffling biscuits that her partner had brought in for her because we are "so cruel" to deny her food. People can die from aspirating stomach contents during a GA.
This is why surgical patients used to be hospitalized the night before so they were under supervision, as hospitals used to be fully staffed.
According to statistics, many patients aren't truthful with their doctors. The latest survey results show that 77% of people have lied or withheld important information from their physicians.
The survey also found that patients are most likely to be dishonest about their lifestyle, particularly their alcohol consumption (25%), eating habits (23%), exercise routine (23%), and sexual history (21%). Around 20% even admitted to lying about their symptoms.
I work in an STD clinic, so the stuff I deal with isn't usually deadly or at least not immediately deadly. However, I am constantly surprised by the percentage of patients who test positive and refuse to tell their partners.
A guy came in a few years ago who for something relatively simple like gonorrhea, but seemed to have trouble walking. Long story short a nurse called an ambulance for him and sent him to the ER for a spinal tap. Turns out an ex boyfriend refused to tell him about his syphilis diagnosis after they had a rough break up like 15-20 years earlier. So not only was our guy possibly spreading syphilis unknowingly, he now had untreatable neurosyphilis. He worked with our Disease Intervention Specialists to track down as many partners as they could but I think he died from related complications like a year after his initial visit.
The most frequent one is that they don't need a specific antibiotic or other life saving d**g because it is really just too expensive for them to afford. The fault is mostly with the d**g companies. They find out they are the only ones making a specific d**g and they raise the price just because they can. Then the insurance stops covering it and the doctors may not learn any of this until the pharmacies start calling his office to get the d**g changed to something else. But there is no telling how many people die or suffer serious health problems because of the d**g and insurance company's greed. A lot of people get less than ideal treatment simply because of these middle men trying to get their cut.
Jesus. Nurse here. We dont care. We dont care about your history, your finances, your social scene, your anything. We just want to help you. Christ. We really don't care about anything except that you are a human being, and we want to help you. Please people. Tell the truth. It will save your live.
"As a psychologist with an expertise in self-deception, I assume all of my clients lie to me about something at some point. Some will probably lie regularly. Depending on the patient population and frequency with which they perceive a client to lie, I think that most therapists are on the lookout for lies that may be very common but important to the clinical presentation and experience of our clients," says board-certified clinical psychologist Dr. Cortney S. Warren.
"For example, as someone who specializes in eating disorders and addictive behavior, many of my patients lie to me about how much food they are eating, how often they are binge eating and purging, and when they last used drugs or alcohol. I generally assume this to be the case and am on the lookout for indications that they aren’t telling me the full truth."
Not a doctor but my sisters godfather was diabetic. He went to the ER because he had a really bad cold for like 2 weeks. He went in and they asked him if he was a diabetic and for some reason he said no. Long story short they gave him something that made his sugar levels go up and he went into a coma. He died about a month later because his organs shutdown.
Edit: he was only 32 years old just in case anyone was wondering.
I bet it was a corticosteroid (i.e. prednisone). Helps treat respiratory problems but can really mess with your blood sugar.
I'm not a doctor but a patient with a couple of really weird disorders that cause doctors who arent familiar with them to think I am taking. I have been denied very needed basic treatment like a bag of saline because my dehydration is exasperating my symptoms because they think I'm somehow gaming the system. These assumptions that patients are lying do a lot of harm, too.
My grandpa got leukemia when I was young and it made me have a drive to donate blood as often as I could. By the time I was in my late 20's I had scars from where I've given blood so much. Every single time I go to the doctor they ask about intravenous d***s at least 3 times.
I was a L&D RN. My coworker had a patient show up in labor, she was 6 cm. I was helping get the room set up for delivery, and the patient's mom started to ask her, "So does that mean the baby -" and the patient violently shushes her.
Her doctor wasn't on that night and that office didn't have electronic records we could access at night, so we're just going about prepping for this delivery, when her doctor happened to come into the nurse's station because she had to come in for a medical patient on another unit. She just stopped by to chat, but noticed that patient on the board and asks, "Oh, so her baby actually flipped?"
Turns out the kid had been breech all pregnancy, and was still breech. She didn't want a c-section so she figured she'd just try to come in so far dilated that she could just deliver. That would have been okay if she was frank breech (butt down) since it wasn't her first baby, but she was footling breech (crossed legs with feet down). That's dangerous as hell, because it's super easy for the umbilical cord to come out first instead of the baby, which cuts off baby's oxygen (my fourth was head down and this ended up happening to me anyway - emergency c-section in less than 10 minutes). Her baby was so lucky her water hadn't broken, especially if she'd been at home still.
She still kept refusing the c-section, and my coworker finally snapped. We had another patient who was in for a stillbirth, and had a lot of family down in our waiting room trying to process what had happened. My coworker asks if her patient had noticed all the crying people at the end of the hall, as they were mourning their dead baby, and would she rather have a c-section, or deal with the grief that family had?
She finally got the stupid c-section. My coworker caught a lot of flak for checking that patient and not noticing she wasn't feeling a head.
My sister was in L&D to deliver her 7 month old fetus that had died; it was a full 12+ hour labor. We sat around listening to people complain about how long it was taking for their family member to deliver. We finally said "At least you're waiting for a live baby; we know we're waiting for one that isn't alive." This shut them up.
Dr. Warren says that the main reason patients color the truth is fear. Fear of judgment, embarrassment, and consequences. They could also choose to lie in order to look healthier than they are, get approval, and maintain control. Additionally, they might be in denial or feel like they can trust the medical professional.
Even though it's understandable why patients mislead doctors, we have to understand that being dishonest with a physician can have dire consequences. When people are coloring the truth or withholding information, doctors can't accurately diagnose, treat, and advise them.
These stories on the list are just some examples of how people voluntarily put their lives on the line because they chose to lie. Health is no joking matter, so we urge you to be honest with your medical professionals, as some lies can be really dangerous.
Social Worker at a children's hospital. We have kids coming in through our resuscitation room that have been seizing and are unconscious with no prior history. I'm constantly trying to get parents to tell me if there is a possibility that their toddler might have ingested something, "Does your kid have access to cannabis? Could they have eaten some?". Parents never want to admit it to doctors and so I'm always on a fact finding mission. As a social worker parents are either glad I'm there or they think I'm going to take their kids away...
PSA - cannabis can effect children in horrible, shut down your ability to breathe, kind of ways!
Almost killing your child because you don't want to admit to the presence of any type of d**g or narcotic is silly.
Middle-aged housewife comes to ED with episodes of headache and collapse/vacant episodes. Usually early hours of the morning. Has the full work-up with CT scans and lumbar punctures several times - always negative. It took several attendances before anyone asked her about recreational d***s (she was an unassuming suburban mum). Turns out she was into c*****e in a big way leading to reversible cerebral vasoconstriction. No more c*****e = no more headaches (and no lasting consequences luckily).
I wasn’t the lead on this case, but I was the assist. When I was in dental school this patient came in and was really hyped up. My buddy asked him if he has been on any d***s and the guy just said he had a lot of caffeine. OK-we move forward. From what my friend told me his blood pressure was high, but not too high for an elective procedure.
Part of the local numbing we give patients has epinephrine in it and sometimes this gets into the bloodstream with certain types of nerve blocks, not uncommon. However, if you’ve snorted a couple lines of c*****e and then get epi in your bloodstream that’s no bueno. Ended up calling the ambulance, his BP was so high he was at risk for a stroke. So yeah, even stuff the dentist does can k**l you if you lie.
In vet med, at least, recent evidence (ok, lectures from multiple AVDC/vet dentistry specialists at a conference) advises against using lido or bupiv with epi. The local vasoconstriction does more harm than the benefit of more rapid onset/longer action is worth. There are better ways to extend duration of analgesia. Reducing bleeding with local epi turns out to not be a good thing, and better tissue handling plus other hemostasis techniques are superior to epi.
How about the opposite? I’ve moved a lot and when I visit a new doctor they often try to answer my health history for me.
‘Drinking? Smoking? Exercise and diet? Meh. You’re thin. So moderate, no, regular, healthy.’
None of that is accurate, but when I correct them I get ‘Oh. So is this a cry for help?’
What? No. I just want you to have the facts.
I was admitting patients in the psychiatric ward. Busy night, and I was way behind. An older man with s****o-affective disorder is admitted with a caretaker. A nurse asks them a few questions, including if the patient has taken any medicine and/or narcotics. The caretaker says no.
I see the patient 4 hours later. He seems delirious, which often is caused by a somatic problem (including medicine - you know where this is going). He can’t maintain eye contact and can only sit in his chair and talk nonsense. He drools and yells every word, but somehow seems very tired.
I ask the caretaker if the patient has taken any medication, and she says the patient broke into a medicine room at the the institution he lives and just started eating random pills.
Apparently this is somewhere around 80 pills not being more precise because she did not bother gathering the empty pillboxes. The only information I could get was, that he definitely ate over 40 lithium pills (which is just great if you really hate your kidneys).
Now, after calling the emergency department to quickly prep and an ambulance with an anaesthesiologist for transport, I talked with the caretaker (through my teeth - just slightly - angry). Apparently the nurse “wouldn’t understand” because it wasn’t his own medicine and she didn’t want to “make a fuss”. I screamed into my pillow that night in pure frustration.
I later found out he lived after intensive care and almost loosing his kidney function.
One of my patients was smoking in the bathroom while on oxygen. Could've ended very badly for him and others in the hospital.
I worked for a Medical Supply company setting people up on oxygen every day. Repeatedly warned them. Even if you take off your tubing, the oxygen has saturated your clothes and surroundings. Had to pick up equipment after a few house fires, they didn't make it. You could follow the burn line from their chair to the equipment where it followed the tubing. Sad.
My cousin is an ER doctor and sees this quite a bit. Mostly people lying about having done d***s and underage drinking because they don't want to get in trouble, not understanding that the doctors are less concerned with that than they are making sure the person lives.
One particular incident the person had drunk quite a bit and done several kinds of d***s but wouldn't admit to it, and came in alone so there was no one to verify what had happened. Because this person wouldn't admit to the d***s they'd taken (and thus wouldn't tell the docs what they had taken) they had no way to help and could do little except watch as this person slowly died from the d**g and alcohol interactions because without knowing what was already in their system giving them anything could have only sped up the process. The person was a minor and passed away from massive organ failure because they were more worried about getting in trouble than saving their own life until it was far too late to admit the truth.
“Everybody lies” - Gregory House.
Not a doctor BUT I was in the ER once separated from another patient by only a thin curtain. It was impossible to not overhear what was going on. She was an elderly woman who had taken an ambulance in due to feeling faint and said she had no other symptoms.
Hours are going by, she gets up to use the washroom a couple times and makes small talk with her brother, sounding pretty woozy the whole time. Doctors keep checking on her, they draw blood and check her blood pressure. I think it was like remarkably low but they aren't sure why.
Cut to several hours later when a nurse notices there's some blood on the woman's bed. After some back-and-forth she finally admits that she had been bleeding profusely from her r****m for WEEKS.
The doctors gave her a hard time but got her out of there REAL fast.
Had a grandma who was basically comatose status in ER, whenever we could rouse her or get a word she stated she wasn't on any d***s, we YOLO gave her Narcan (narcotic od d**g) with no effect, 20-30 minutes later we do flumazenil / romazicon (benzo od d**g) and she wakes up. A lot of ppl weren't suspecting her of d**g OD given her age & statement so they were thinking 900 different routes.
Had a relative that went in for surgery on his stomach. There were holes in the lining that were caused by painkiller abuse. No one at the time knew what was causing this except for my relative. Doc asks him if he was on any medications, relative says no, they put him under, he didn't wake up. His toxicology showed oxycodone and hydrocodone. Don't lie to doctors. They don't tell anyone about your medical problems anyways.
Having been in for surgeries, I always provide a full list of my medications - both prescribed and over the counter (like vitamins & Tylenol). They are always grateful! Since the hospital I've used is in the Kaiser network (my regular Doctors & insurance) I asked if it was possible for them to access my pharmaceutical records. They said they could, but it took a great deal more time, and they had to go through my GP for permission.
My teenage brother had the opposite to most of these stories.
He came home after being out drinking with friends, raided the fridge and went to bed. A little later he comes out panicking to my parents that he’s having trouble breathing, is feeling dizzy, and has a bunch of other alarming symptoms.
They rush him to the ER and from what they tell me the staff were yelling at him to tell them what d***s he’d taken, even though he was adamant he hadn’t taken anything. They wouldn’t believe him, my parents were begging him to tell them, but he insisted he hadn’t.
I’m not sure of the rest of the details but it turns out he had developed a nut allergy he wasn’t aware of, and had eaten something that was causing him to go into anaphylaxis.
Similar thing happened to me being screamed at by nurses what d***s have you taken. I and flatmate who took me to ER kept saying none. What i had taken was clarityn (tablet for allergy) for severe reaction to nettles and the active ingredient in the clarityn had caused anaphylaxis. Wear a SoS bracelet that states allergy to Loratadine and Desloratadine
I work in outpatient surgical center, lying to anesthesia can be really dangerous. I've had a person lie about not taking d***s and then react badly when given the anesthesia meds because they interacted (fortunately for that patient not nearly dying but I will forever have it ingrained in my head the anaesthetist leaning over their head screaming "what d***s did you take?!". Anotehr that I fortunately havent seen serious event but definitely has happened to our providers and I've seen more mild versions, people eating/drinking before the anesthesia and then denying. Lucky for my patients they just have puked after waking up so we know they had it but made it ok. The danger is you can puke during sedation and then get it in your lungs (called aspirating) and die from that. Could be really bad but fortunately I personally havent seen the worst yet, but I've heard plenty of stories of it.
Imagine being in vet med where the patients can't talk (though they can't lie either). But a pre-anesthetic injection of morphine never lies (causes nausea, often vomiting, and way too often brings up an undigested meal in a dog that was supposedly not fed in past 8+ hours). I don't use morphine in every pre-op, but definitely if I don't believe the owner or if its an emergency surgery where morphine is not contraindicated (down dachshund, big dog-little dog, etc).
Here's a f****d up family story. We had an 81 year old frail grandmother brought in by family for "failure to thrive" in the setting of incurable stage IV colon cancer being cared for at home. Patient was admitted awake and conversational, poor historian, complaining of pain. She proceeded to gradually get sicker, shut down like she was dying - becoming gradually nonverbal, unresponsive, and dropping vitals. She was DNR so we did supportive care and looked for causes such as UTI, SBP, sepsis, liver failure, etc. The family was around the whole time, acting very involved and caring. 36 hours later she gradually started coming out if it, before recovering back to baseline.
It turns out she was given her home dose of morphine in the ER prior to admission, which was 100 mg extended release morphine (twice daily) as she had been complaining of pain. Her family had failed to mention that they been diverting all her pain medications. That nearly got their grandmother k****d, as we had no reason to suspect an opiate as the cause. That reminded me to always consider opiates. We discharged her to a long term care facility.
When we do our pre op check before a surgery, our office prints out a list of meds we have in file that the patient is taking. We tell them please look at this list and sign it to indicate this is the current and up to date list of the meds you take. Patient signed and we plan for surgery next week. Get a call from anesthesia the day before her scheduled surgery. Apparently she "forgot" to mention she had started taking a weight loss d**g that if you're taking it, can cause severe hypotension when you go under anesthesia and in extreme cases you can die from that. You have to have stopped the d**g for at least 4 days to be safe to have anesthesia. So her surgery got pushed back a week. Not canceled just pushed back enough to be safe. She call our office fuming and demanding a refund for the time she took off work. Seriously lady? Sorry but we have a signed document saying you told us all your meds. Exactly who should be mad at who? You put us at liability and now the surgeon/our office doesn't get paid for that day when we could have subbed in someone else in that slot.
I called mom last night for a mother's day chat (I'll be working Sunday) and she told me the story about her last colonoscopy. They told her no food or drink and no NSAIDs. She is massive coffee a d d ict so of course had a headache that morning from caffeine withdrawal. So she took an aspirin or two. 😁 They almost canceled her procedure. For those of you that don't know, aspirin is NOT an NSAID (non steroidal anti-inflammatory), but unfortunately a lot of Dr's offices lump those together. Aspirin will inhibit platelet aggregation-> poor blood clotting="blood thinning"-> bleeding if they had to remove a polyp or whatnot. The biggest problem with that whole incident was they gasped and made a huge deal out of it instead of ha dling it calmly and quietly, which humiliated my mom after an already horrible night on the toilet (pre colonoscopy clean-out) and rough, hungry, caffeine-free morning. She now refuses to ever have another colonoscopy.
We had a patient that took her home heart meds religiously even in the hospital when we were also administering then to her. She was Educated to not take any of her home meds while she is hospitalized since were giving her the hospital meds. She would sneak and take them. Her blood pressure bottom out and would have to bolus her. Security was called and had to remove the meds from her and lock them up. We had another patient requested a sleep med. The nurse gave it to her. Later, found patient barely arousable and blood pressure dropped which did not make sense she was given a low dose of sleep aid. Patient had her purse open on the bed and found a prescription of Ambien. The patient took our sleep aid plus double dose of her home med Ambien. We always instruct patients on admission not to take their home meds while in the hospital. We are not allowed to go through their belongings due to privacy. Edit: grammar.
One reason people in the US do this is they don't want to pay the hospital cost of the d***s they already have at home. The US healthy system is really messed up.
I’m not a doctor but my friend went to the dentist for an emergency root canal, The dentist Asked him if he had done Any kind of d***s in the last week because anesthesia they needed to put him under would k**l him if he had done any form of c*****e. He lied, the the dentist Was about to put him under when My friend finally came clean. My Dumb a*s friend Nearly k***ed himself Because he lied to a dentist.
I'm an NP in a medical ICU. Probably my most consistent is people lying about their drinking habits. I could give less than a s**t if you pound a bottle a night, I just need to know so I can be ready for you to start detoxing on day 3 and have the right meds in cue so you don't have a seizure, aspirate, etc. I always make this abundantly clear, and I am not the morality police. Yet, every year we have a few come in with very fixable problems, lie about heavy drinking habits, and ultimately die in the hospital from complications secondary to their withdrawal.
Nurse on an ortho unit. This particular patient was a fresh post-op joint replacement. They woke up in the middle of the night going bats**t crazy. He was insisting he had to leave. He was seeing things. We were on the 6th floor and he tried going down the back stairwell. There was no reasoning with this dude. He was straight up determined to leave.
Turns out he was detoxing from alcohol. He had lied to both his doctor and the nurse that admitted him about his alcohol use. When you're a heavy user like he was, quitting cold turkey can k**l you. We were lucky he didn't start seizing before we got meds on board to help him detox safely. I was very thankful I caught him trying to get down the stairs before he went a*s over tea kettle and c*****d his head open.
A few months later, he was back on the surgery schedule to fix an injury on his operative leg from falling. Luckily, his doc knew to plan for detox this time around. But the patient also planned ahead... after he was discharged, we found a bottle of booze in the bedside table. -_-.
My, well, step-uncle (brother of my step father, never met him though) lied about being in pain/sick so he could stay home from school and miss a test. Kept upping the ante so they'd believe him. Apparently his parents were pretty strict and he was terrified to admit he'd lied.
Long story short they took him to the hospital, he was diagnosed with appendicitis, and they straight up cut him open.
The test was looking pretty good at that point.
This happened to me, too. I had a mild stomachache and wanted to stay home. But my mum was concerned and despite me saying it was nothing major, called the doctor. In those days they actually did house visits. He gave me a few quick pokes and said to take me to the hospital immediately. It was appendicitis and they operated the same night.
I have a story about someone’s lie that did end up k*****g them. About ten years ago my best friend’s ex, David, bought some e*****y for himself and his big brother, John. The e*****y they bought was laced with something bad but they didn’t know that yet. They each took one and John started to OD. David, wanting to save his big brother, called an ambulance. It showed up and David explained what happened. They loaded up John and they asked David if he also took the e*****y. Because he didn’t want to get in trouble he lied and said only his brother took the bad e*****y. Ambulance left with John while David started to OD minutes later. John was taken to the hospital and survived, David died alone at their house. Such a dumb accident but so sad nonetheless. I think John still struggles with the guilt of the death of his baby brother to this day.
Not a doctor but a Army Combat Medic.
We were in a small firefight and a ANA soldier was hit in the leg, it was very easy to see the wound because of the desert camo doesn't blend in well with blood. The part that almost k***d him is he never told us that he was hit in the chest, we asked him and he said only in the leg. I knew he was lying because he was holding his chest too, but I didnt want to make a bad situation even worse so I didnt say anything but when we asked him again and he said no I didnt want him to die of course so i pulled his plate carrier off and we did more Medical on him. He definitely would have died from that wound, it punctured his lung and he was having trouble breathing. We called for a MEDEVAC and he lived but with only 1 lung. Never knew it he join the ANA again but I assumed he stayed out.
Not a doctor, but my Dad's a paramedic - he's told me plenty of times about when patients have told him they've taken XYZ d***s when they've been doing illegal d***s to avoid getting into trouble, and he's administered d***s which just make it 10x worse because of the combination of them, and he can't do anything else other than just take them to the hospital if they're still breathing.
The way this is written is confusing. When they’ve taken XYZ d***s when they’ve been doing illegal d***s to avoid getting in trouble. Did they mean NOT telling him when they’ve been doing legal and illegal d***s together?
“No I don’t smoke.”.
Not a doc, but worked in EMS for a handful of years. We would get o******e patients who "definitely don't use d***s" yet respond to Narcan.
Not a doctor, or a dentist, but plenty of people die from doing m**h before going under anesthesia.
"No, I currently do not have scissors lodged in my neck and am hemorrhaging."
I'm not a doctor, but that sounds like it could have happened once right? ;).
Seen a few "no I have not swallowed a pill shaped battery" cases... and that can also be fst a little.
So, this new patient of mine comes in claiming he’s diabetic, later to find out he isn’t, but needs me to believe it so he can be close to me, apparently all apart of his plan to break out of prison, from the infirmary. Anyway we have a happy marriage with a FEW hiccups, a lovey kid, took down ‘The Company’, broken a few people out of prisons in different continents including myself. His name is Michael Schofield and oh yeah he’s almost died a few times.
Why post an article on medical dangers and issues, if none of the actual terms or issues get past your ridiculous censor filter? Even scientific names for body parts are a no- go...
Why post an article on medical dangers and issues, if none of the actual terms or issues get past your ridiculous censor filter? Even scientific names for body parts are a no- go...