Sharing deeply personal or embarrassing info with medical professionals can be nerve-racking, but it's so important to tell them the truth. After all, it can be incredibly hard for doctors to do their jobs without having all the information they need to make a true diagnosis.
Recently, u/pleasedvenison5asked doctors and other medical professionals on Reddit to share their stories about patients not being truthful with them, and their responses range from truly baffling to downright shocking. Here are some of the wildest stories:
1."I’m a hospital dietitian. One time I had a patient who always had very high blood sugar and needed tons of insulin to make it go down. This was a daily thing, and several specialists even came in to consult to try to figure out why this person wasn’t responding to meds. After a few days, a nurse caught the patient EATING CANDY from a bag they had stashed somewhere in the room. This person laid in bed for days eating candy and said NOTHING while all of us were trying to control his glucose!"
2."This is a med school story. During ER rotation, a guy came in with a banana up his butt. It went in too far, and he needed medical attention. He swore up and down that he tripped, fell on the stairs, and accidentally sat on the banana. After we fished the banana out, my attending at the time came over and said to me, 'Just before he accidentally fell onto the banana, a condom magically got in the way.'"
3."I'm a nurse. Men constantly lie about their height to us when we're trying to fill out their charts. Even to the male doctors and nurses! I'm pretty tall, so I can tell immediately when the person who's saying they're 5'11" is actually 5'8.""
4."There was a guy who came in for a broken bone who failed to tell the people caring for him that there was a Gatorade bottle stuck on his penis."
5."I can literally smell the smoke on your clothes and breath, see the nicotine stains on your fingers, and you're trying to tell me you quit smoking 10 years ago?"
6."The number of virgins that I have diagnosed with STI’s and/or pregnancy is astounding."
7."When I was an optician, we had a patient come in that was having trouble with dry eyes. That's okay, it happens. We asked several times if she wore contacts, and she swore up and down she didn't (she got contacts from us, which is how we knew), so we went through as normal. Doctor took her back, and what do you know, she's wearing contacts. Even after he took them out himself and showed her, she refused to acknowledge those were hers. As she left, she asked for a new contact prescription."
8."Once had a woman come in for a 'possible yeast infection.' On exam, she had a glass bottle stuck in her vagina filled with urine. Totally wouldn’t admit it was hers or explain how it got there even after we removed it. Just kept saying, 'I think this is all a joke and you put it up there.'"
9."One thing I noticed a LOT when I worked in allergy was patients lying about taking allergy pills. First off, if you take an allergy pill before an appointment that's scheduled for allergen testing, CANCEL the appointment. We're testing for up to 113 things at once. It takes a long time to set up, and you have to sit for the next 20 minutes and watch for a reaction. It's a colossal waste of time for everyone involved."
10."A patient with a specific type of eczema that looked clearly filler-related swore on her life she had never had fillers done. Awkward silence when the pathologist could see the material they use in fillers under the microscope."
11."I was working in trauma ICU. We had this idiot that clearly shot himself in the hip while putting a gun in his pocket/side. He claimed someone came from behind and shot him. That's the story he gave the cop, too."
12."I have a slightly related story; the patient did admit to me but had been lying to other doctors for years. I was seeing a patient for follow-up after a heart attack. This was the patient's third heart attack, and he had problems from blockages in all his arteries. He had already had a few strokes, stents in his legs, previous bypass from his first heart attack. I felt a bit bad for the guy; from the medication list he brought in, he was on really good medication which should be preventing these things."
13."In general, all drug users are pretty transparent with us, they understand we’re not cops. Heroin to coke, fentanyl or what have you. Except meth. Probably the paranoia. But meth users almost always lie. As just one example: I have heard, 'My partner must have sprinkled a bit into my coffee/breakfast,' minimum three times!"
14."Friend of mine is a doctor and used to work in ER during his training. He told me they kept a box around with the objects that they pulled out of people's asses, like toy cars, lightbulbs, and whatnot. And they had a jar that they would always put €1 into whenever someone claimed, 'I fell on it' or some BS. The first person to just openly admit, 'Yeah, I put that in there for pleasure' was to get all that money — but it never happened before my friend moved on to the next station of his training."
15."One lady came in with a bowel obstruction saying that the only previous surgery she had had was some bowel removal from a previous obstruction. Her abdomen was COVERED in surgical scars, but she was insistent that that was the only surgery she’d ever had. Read her notes and came back and got her to admit she’d had her gallbladder, appendix, ovaries, AND uterus removed. She was missing basically half of her abdominal contents but refused to admit it?? Patients are weird sometimes."
16."Woman came into the OB ER in labor. We asked her if she had had any prenatal checks, and she said she went to all of them. Asked her if she did an ultrasound, and she said yes but left the results at home. We proceeded with vaginal delivery since the baby was already crowning. Once the baby was out, we proceeded with caring for the baby and preparing for the placenta to come out. I put my fingers inside and felt…a foot near the opening. Turns out, she was having twins, and the second one was breech (feet as the presenting part). Good thing we managed to deliver the second one vaginally and there were no complications, but soon, we found out that the mother lied about having any prenatal checks and ultrasound done. She didn’t even know she was having twins."
17."Had a case in residency where a woman came in with her family, swore her water broke at home, and she was going into labor. The nurse couldn't find heartbeats, so was low-key freaking out, put out a call for a bedside ultrasound to confirm an intrauterine demise (still birth). Well, they put the ultrasound probe on, and there's no baby. Family all at the bedside asking, 'What's going on?' And this lady still wouldn't say anything. We were all looking at each other in this silent standoff. We just said, 'Sorry, there's no baby.' And the family was all sorts of confused, 'What do you mean, no baby? Like, the baby is dead?' She didn't say anything so we left the room and discharged her. Pretty sure we checked and she had a negative pregnancy test, too."
18."Patient came in saying they thought they had a UTI and wanted to be tested. I said, okay, please provide a urine sample. They came back out with a urine cup filled with clear liquid. Like, completely clear. Not pale, pale yellow, like crystal clear. Clearly water. I said, 'Is this water or urine?' They just shrugged. I said, 'Can you please go back in and bring back urine instead?' And they came back with urine. They had a UTI, and we gave them antibiotics."
19."I’ve had many discussions with hearing aid patients that the hearing aids they are wearing are, in fact, the newest aids and not 20 years old. Since I issue aids and don’t sell them, people try and tell me I’ve never given them anything even though I can show them serial numbers that match their records. Less frequently, they claim the aids as lost, but I can hear them whistling in their pockets."
20."He wouldn't admit to being shot. Came in with leg pain and a hole. X-ray confirmed bullet in leg. He stated he was bitten. After he was taken to OT and had the bullet removed, he still says he was bitten."
21.And finally, "I do medical massage, and it’s always baffling when people don’t give me very major parts of their health history. One of my patients had a pretty clean health history on paper, nothing listed under surgeries, medications, or cardiovascular issues. Get the massage started, asking follow-up questions as I go, and suddenly, he remembers that he’s on blood thinners, and he’s had a pacemaker put in about two years ago. Cool, cool. Continue working… Oh yeah, and he also had a hip replacement and arthritis in the left knee."
If you work in the medical field, have you ever had a patient lie to you like this? Or have you ever lied to your doctor? Tell us your story in the comments.
