Posted on 02/17/2010 8:55:21 AM PST by JoeProBono
In 2008, a Baltimore woman named Dina Leone shared shocking news with her friends and family: she had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She wrote blogs and Facebook notes, updating everyone on her treatment and progress.
The 37-year-old mother of two received more than an outpouring of support and get-well cards; she also got money to help pay for her treatments and fulfill her dying wishes.
It was all very tragic – and it was also a hoax. Police investigated her claims and soon her story unraveled when the hospitals she claimed to have visited had no record of her. Leone eventually admitted that she had pretended to be sick for over three years.
She was recently indicted on charges of theft and conspiracy. But why would someone lie about having cancer? Usually the main motivation for faking an illness is to gain sympathy. People like being the center of attention; they like the constant stream of well-wishes and gifts, concerned calls from old friends and others.
Sometimes the hoaxes are committed for the simplest and basest of reasons: money. Nothing opens wallets and purses like sympathy for the sick or injured, and few people have the audacity to ask where the money goes. Case in point:
One Boston woman, Kristen Clougherty, told friends and family she had cancer in 1999. They organized a fundraising 5K run in her name, and raised about $50,000, which she reportedly spent on a new car and breast implants.
Often, of course, there are mixed motivations, and the person faking illness has many reasons to keep up the pretense of being sick for as long as possible.
Some people really do have a disease — not cancer but a mental illness known as a factitious disorder. ......
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
How could the hospitals disclose that information? What about patients' privacy rights?
We can't even see the President of the United States' birth certificate.
Who were these cancer deniers?
“Munchausen syndrome” and “Munchausen syndrome by proxy,” where a parent claims that their child is ill.
More than likely the police had a subpoena.
In some of those cases, the parents will actually injure the child (mess with tubing, whatever) to keep the child hospitalized.
For a gift certificate at Hair Team for Men?
My teenage daughter HAD a friend that supposedly had some kind of terminal cancer. At first we were sympathetic but after a short while somewhat suspicious because of the lack of symptoms. Her friend would use the cancer thing for major sympathy and CONTROL as far as using it as an excuse to get out of doing what she didn’t want to do. She used the whole “remission” thing as an excuse as to why she didn’t appear sick.
My daughter broke off the relationship after a year or so (due to a lot of factors) and now (2 years later) we hear her friend is pregnant and going to get married. Kinda’ sad that she had to resort to that kind of manipulation of her friendships.
You beat me to it! The very first thing I thought when I read this was -— wait a minute, y’all dug into the personal medical records of a private citizen to verify her medical history and we can’t verify any medical history for the very public president of the United States from birth to the present!!!
“She was recently indicted on charges of theft and conspiracy”
Just curious here... How do they get to “theft”? Think about it. Accepting donations (albeit under false preteneses) is not exactly therft per-se, is it?
I’m gonna have cancer tonight!
(stole it from Walter)
Theft by deception.
"The key to faking out the parents is the clammy hands. It's a good non-specific symptom; I'm a big believer in it. A lot of people will tell you that a good phony fever is a dead lock, but, uh... you get a nervous mother, you could wind up in a doctor's office. That's worse than school. You fake a stomach cramp, and when you're bent over, moaning and wailing, you lick your palms. It's a little childish and stupid, but then, so is high school."
Bill Clinton never released his medical records either. There were rumors of a cocaine induced heart attack prior to his presidency.
GARY: All right, I got lunch, all right.< /seinfeld >GEORGE: You still owe me a secret.
GARY: All right, listen. There is something I haven't told you, all right?
GEORGE: Yeah?
GARY: Yeah, but uhm, you can't tell Jerry.
GEORGE: What do think I tell Jerry everything? It's not like he's my wife.
GARY: Okay. Well, the thing is, I've been living a lie.
GEORGE: Just one? I'm living like twenty. (chuckles) What's yours?
GARY: Well, I (laughs) I never actually had cancer. (laughs) I'll see you. (leaves)
The car and breasts only cost $40,000. She wasted the rest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.