The term "Munchausen syndrome by proxy" is acquired from Munchausen syndrome, a paradox among adults in which the person fabricates or creates their own medical symptoms, falsely assuming the role of a patient. Munchausen syndrome is named after Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Munchausen a famous teller of wild war stories and many other tall tales. He lived during the 17th century. His tales were the inspiration for 17th century writer Rudolf Enrich Raspe’s book Baron Munchausen. The name of the syndrome basically derives from a famous liar. By proxy means one who is appointed or authorized to act for another. If an adult fabricates or induces symptoms in a child, putting the child in the medical patient or victim role, it is defined as Munchausen …show more content…
This term is used to describe a form of child abuse in which the victim receives unnecessary and harmful medical care at the instigation of the child’s parent or other caretaker. The perpetrator may exaggerate, fabricate, or directly cause symptoms of illness that can or will lead to unnecessary medical treatment for child. Parents may deceive medical professionals by presenting a convincing medical history that persuades the physician or other hospital/clinical staff to provide unnecessary and possibly harmful interventions. Thus, medical providers may unknowingly become instruments of the abuse by performing unnecessary surgeries, diagnostic procedures and other medical treatments based upon the parent’s false or exaggerated reports. Medical Child Abuse is a diagnosis recognized and supported by the American Board of Pediatrics. (Duquette Siegel, 2007, pg. 1) The impact of Medical Child Abuse on the victim may include both physical and psychological harm. Children who are victims could possibly experience the risk of deterioration of an existing medical condition due to deliberately neglecting treatment for a genuine illness. They may acquire medical problems after invasive diagnostic procedures and/or surgeries. All of these children suffer harm; some of these children may suffer from significant long-term harm or even permanent disability as a result of their maltreatment; some children …show more content…
Her five year old son Garnett-Paul Spears passed away on January 23, 2014. In the first year of his life, Lacey had written about 23 hospital stays on her blog. One stay was five weeks long. The stays were attributed to ear infections, fevers, and fluid leaking from the ears. Garnett was administered a feeding tube before the age of one. When asked, his mother said it was due to an illness called failure to thrive. Friends and acquaintances noted Garnett’s ability to ingest food orally without issues and amongst themselves questioned the need for the feeding tube. Throughout the next few years of Garnett’s life, he was moved from state to state, and had many inpatient stays at a number of children’s hospitals. The stays were due to numerous health problems including inability to gain weight, high fevers, spiked sodium levels, suddenly ceasing to breathe, staph infections, and blood leaking from ears and nose. His final stay at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, N.Y. was due to epileptic seizures possibly due to another spike in sodium levels. The doctors approached Lacey after her son’s death with many questions. It was metabolically impossible for her son’s body to create the sodium needed to measure at that extreme of a level. How then, had he ingested this much salt? Had Lacey given it to him? Doctors suspected she had. It was later found that the bags which had been used to
“Cullen and Flein Concede that in rare cases, it is permissible for doctors to deceive a patient but only if the deception is for a short while and if the potential gain from the deception is probable and significant. (Cullen Klein
The term child abuse was once as rarely heard as that of pink elephants. However rare the term has once been, it is now a term used consistently throughout the news and various other publications today. Along with the progressing decline in society's morals, has come the rapid increase of crime. One such crime is child abuse. Although child abuse is common, the act is defiling. As a result of the abuse, children who fall victim to this often need psychological treatment and counseling. Often, the child is never the same as he or she once was before. The dictionary defines child abuse as: "the physical, or emotional, or sexual mistreatment of children" (Dictionary.com). Everyday thousands of children are the victims of this abuse. The abusers range from parents, friends, total strangers, to even day-care workers.
She controlled every movement and every person’s actions and thoughts. She made the doctors so miserable when they did not follow her instructions, that they begged to be transferred out if. “I'm disappointed in you. Even if one hadn't read his history all one should need to do is pay attention to his behavior on the ward to realize how absurd the suggestion is. This man is not only very very sick, but I believe he is definitely a Potential Assaultive” (). This quote from the book illustrated how Nurse Ratched controlled her ward. She manipulated people into siding with her regardless of whether it was the right decision. This was malpractice by Nurse Ratched because she did not allow the doctor, who was trained to diagnose patients, to do his job properly. Instead, she manipulated the doctor to diagnose the patients incorrectly in order to benefit her interests rather than those of the
Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), or factitious illness by proxy, is the form of child abuse in which a parent (most often the mother) deliberately produces an illness in the child. The perpetrator, by definition, suffers from a serious emotional disorder that impairs judgment. The emotional disorder is not diagnosable; its pathology is culturally invisible and masked by social adaptation (e.g., overreacting to the child's illness and emotional hunger). The offending parent usually has significant medical knowledge, while being naive about human relationships. She or he seeks psychological gain (love, attention, or sanity) through provoking medical illnesses and conflicts. This entity is common and carries substantial morbidity and mortality reported mortality rates range from 10% to 30%.6,7
In “Should Doctors Tell the Truth?” Joseph Collins argues for paternalistic deception, declaring that it is permissible for physicians to deceive their patients when it is in their best interests. Collins considers his argument from a “pragmatic” standpoint, rather than a moral one, and uses his experience with the sick to justify paternalistic deception. Collins argues that in his years of practicing, he has encountered four types of patients who want to know the truth: those that want to know so they know how much time they have left, those who do not want to know and may suffer if told the truth, those who are incapable of hearing the truth, and those who do not have a serious diagnosis (605). Collins follows with the assertion that the more serious the condition is, the less likely the patient is to seek information about their health (606).
Currently, there are many children whom suffer from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in their family. Emotional abuse is the lack of interest or affection parents have towards their children. As a result of emotional abuse, children are left feeling worthless and unloved. Physical abuse refers to attacking children resulting visible bodily injuries from either being burned, pushed, punched, slapped, or whipped. Sometimes physical abuse can be extremely severe that children have broken bones, fractures, or hemorrhaging. Sexual abuse occurs when a person forces, tricks, or threatens children to have sexual contact. These acts of child abuse could prevent children from living a normal adulthood. In order to deal with such a traumatic childhood, adults abused as children should rid themselves of such burdensome, painful memories.
The term Munchausen syndrome by Proxy was originally coined by Meadow in (1977), to describe a situation in which a caregiver "creates factitious symptoms or signs in order to mislead the physician into believing the child is ill" (Blumenthal, 106). Meadow (2002) further defines Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy,
What, technically, is Munchausen syndrome? According to the Merck Manual, it is "Repeated fabrication of physical illness - usually acute, dramatic, and convincing - by a person who wanders from hospital to hospital for treatment." (1) People suffering from this disorder will even go so far as to inflict physical harm upon themselves in order to get the attention they want. Generally, it is associated with a past history of severe neglect and abuse inflicted upon the subject. It is important at this point to differentiate between Munchausen and two other pathological behaviors for which it might be mistaken: unlike hypochondriacs, Munchausen sufferers are conscious of the fact that they are not genuinely sick (2); unlike malingerers (people who fake or induce the symptoms of illness for some external gain, such as the prescription of painkillers (3)) the behavior of an overwhelming majority of Munchausen sufferers cannot be attributed to conscious motives. (1)
In addition to the complete blood count the doctor had also ordered new electrolytes to be drawn up that day. Electrolytes are ions that are present in the human body and require a particular balance in order for cells to function normally (Pagana & Pagana, 2010). The electrolytes the doctor ordered included, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphate and magnesium (Pagana & Pagana, 2010). From these findings only sodium, an electrolyte involved in fluid regulation, pH balance and muscle contractions was found to be elevated (Pagana & Pagana, 2010). At five days post-op her sodium level was mildly high at 148mmol/l and on the date of my care it was 150mmol/l, higher than the normal of 137-145mmol/l.
World War II was a traumatic and life-changing experience for all who lived through the
The Center of Disease Control and prevention defines child abuse as any act or series of events that results in harm, potential harm or threatens the child’s safety (Webb, 2007). While many people believe that child maltreatment is simply physical many other forms of maltreatment occur; sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment are also common forms of abuse. Domestic Violence is also included in the definition of child maltre...
Michael Davis RC_2001_410 (Honors) Assignment One Part IV 31 March 2018 My Scholars Day Experience
Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee ingeniously uses an allegorical strategy to discuss the perils African Americans faced through colonialism produced by European imperialists. He discusses these hardships by depicting the life of a fictional character named Michael, and his continuous struggle to escape from European brutality in society. It is important to note that Michael is not intended to be seen as a real character. He is simply a symbolic representation of something deeper, which makes it different from the literal sense of the text. Coetzee takes the reader on an adventure, only to find out that there is no logical escape from the exploitation in Michael’s surroundings.
The name Munchausen by proxy syndrome was coined from the adult “Munchausen syndrome” because it seemed to mimic the adult disorder of illness fabrication but involved the use of a child as a type of proxy (Schreier & Libow, 1996, p 40-44). Many abusers seek to get there frustration out but with this disorder the mother wishes to gain positive attention from the abusing. Other motivations can be to gain sympathy and show off their medical knowledge to others. The mother herself may induce the symptoms by giving the victim sedatives or poisons. In some cases, others have faked bleeding or added chemicals to the victim’s specimens.
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.