Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-03-14
BOGUS HOSPITAL PATIENTS.
tricks of Cunning SIaiingcrers Whose De-
ecptions Are Detected at Hospitals.

tricks of Cunning NIalingcrers Whose De.
eeptions Are Detected at Hospitals.
philadelphia Times.l
Nearly every hospital and house of
correction in the country has its regular
attendance of malingerers, said a phys
ician at the Episcopal hospital Some
are most cunning in their schemes to
become patients. The comfortable bed,
the good food and the kind attention
they receive are the temptations to
make them try these receptions. re-
member case in point of a wonderfully
clever piece of feigning 1t was a
woman who was brought to this hospital
several months ago with hemorrhage
from the lungs. She was a poor, weakly
looking thing, very thin and a bad
cough. She did indeed have diseased
lungs. We could not lind out sufficient
10 comprehend the true nature of it,
however. 1t was an obscure complaint.
s'We gave her good, strengthening
food and treatment and she grew quite
fat. She even made herself quite usc
full in the wards. The strange thing
was that every time We spoke of dis
charging her she was sure to be taken
sick during the night and we would find
her with her clothes all covered with
blood that she spat from her mouth. At
last we began to suspect something and
we set watch. How do you think she
managed2 Why, she used to take her
lower lip between her teeth and bite ii
on the inside until il bled profusely.
When we discovered her secret she was
sent away, probably only to play her
trick upon some other hospital.
Another case was while | was study
ing at the university. A man was
brought in with hip. oint disease. The
slightest touch would make him cringe
with pain and he could not even bear
any one to sit on the side of his bed.
His leg showed no particular signs of
disease beyond being thinner than the
other and the flesh about the Joint
seemed fallen away. He could not use
the leg at ALL We fed him up and doc
tored him and he, too, with the help of
a crutch and foot-sling, used to do
odd jobs about the hospital. Whenever
we tried to make him use the limb, how
ever, he would always be taken sick and
complain of his joint.
At last We began to think him in
durable and proposed to send him to the
Home for lncurables. The day after
we made this proposition to him he said
he was better and he got up and walked
out of the hospital without even stick.
That man has been in every hospital
in Pennsylvania, always with hip-joint
disease. He never used his leg and con-
it was slightly shriveled in
comparison with the other, and out of
it he made capital. Heart disease has
been feigned in manner most puzzling
to medical men. have known man
come into the hospital with every symp-
tom of valvular disease-the palpita-
ton, the loss of breath and even the
suffusion of blood-vessels of the face.
Good food and warm quarters, with no
work to do in particular, always prove
the rock on which they split. They be
come more or less lively, and when di
charge is spoken of a sudden and unlc
countable attack comes on, which
Immediately followed by discovery OF
the fraud
Il once saw case of epilepsy feigned
in such marvellous way that for DAYS
we were all taken in. The man used to
have paroxysms of spasmodic character,
loaned at the mouth and bit his tongue
till it became blue and swollen. His
limbs became rigid and he was insensi-
Bile to pain. We found him out first of
all by discovering that his pupils were
sensible to the effect of light. Then we
found that the sHasms were entirely |
feigned and the foam produced by a
small piece of soap in his mouth. We
pinched him and pricked him and even
applied the actual cautery, but all was
Of no avail. At last some one hit on
he plan of cutting down sup
plies and making him take hor-
ribly nasty medicine. This treat
nent cured him and he quilted the hos
pital, vowing he would never return to
such miserable place. He visited sew
eral others, however, and, unless he is
dead, is probably still pursuing hi:
malingering method of earning hveli-
hood.
1T is not by any means an uncommon
thing for people to come in with wounds
and even fractured limbs which have
been procured purposely. That seems
an incredible statement, but it is never
less true. Che records of hospital
only tell the names of the diseases and
when the PARENTS were discharged, but
the nurses aid house doctors could tell
many tale Of patient, with we'll as
sumed complaints and Intentionally con-
tracted troubles rheumatism is SO
easily feigned, and how is doctor to
swear that the patient does not feel the
main he OPofpsSpe to nynnriaDcap'