Doctors expose the shocking signs that somebody is totally faking it.

My ICU attending has a great story about caring for a stroke patient during his fellowship.

The stroke patient was a frequent flyer, and despite everyone knowing she was faking her paralysis, she still received care.

Until one day, when he was really fatigued, he was told by a nurse that this patient was being

rude and refusing therapy. So he walked into the patient's room and said,

Miss, blank, this is absurd. I know you're faking your paralysis, everyone knows you're faking,

and we're all sick of this. And he left. And wouldn't you know it, the patient walked out

AMA. To clarify AMA is against medical advice.

And to address the people who asked if her leaving is even considered against medical advice

if she wasn't paralyzed, the answer is yes.

She was admitted to the hospital under the care of physicians and left without being

properly discharged, which, strictly speaking, is AMA.

I'm a paramedic.

Tons of calls to the jail for inmates with seizures.

I just lift their arms over their face and let it go.

They'll move it to prevent hitting their face, or I'll lightly brush their eyelashes and they'll twitch to it.

Dude, I worked at the jail as a detention officer.

We really hate having to call you guys when we know that people are faking because we do the same things. But the nurse oftentimes doesn't want to take any flack and just makes the call anyway. Sorry for wasting your time. If someone's unconscious, make a fist and rub your knuckles against their sternum, you know, their chest bone. Put some pressure behind it and rub it quickly up and down. Up towards the chin, down towards the belly. It's called a sternal rub and it's incredibly painful, but it won't harm the person in any way. It's very, very hard to completely ignore and continue with the ruse of faking being unconscious. The only more surefire thing is asking your partner to hand you the eye needle to take some ocular fluid while they're passed out, so they won't feel the pain of the needle in their eye.

Okay, update guys, there's no actual ocular needle, at least not on an ambulance.

We say that because not everybody knows it, and it's a horrifying thing to hear if you're faking being unconscious.

We get a lot of miraculous recoveries that way. Okay, update two. Apparently

the sternal rub isn't common practice anymore because people literally went too hard. Sorry. Also,

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