Originally posted by Red NightPerhaps my erudtion betrays me 😲
Everyone seems happy enough to give me the blame.
TSM thanks Russ for this tremendous victory for RHP users everywhere!
Munchausen's Syndrome is the condition we name when a person makes himself ill purposely often to get the attention and friendship of medical personnel. For example, a person that secretly injects himself with his own germs into the blood stream to make themselves sick and needs to be hospitalized on a regular basis will often see the same medical staff who feel sorry for this person with this strange disease. This person and the staff become friendly. However, after this happens three or more times, people become suspicious and catch the person doing this to himself. Sometimes people will die from making themselves ill. Once someone who has Munchausen's Syndrome is identified, psychological and psychiatric intervention is necessary.
Now, Munchausen by proxy is when a parent makes their child ill on a recurrent basis. This is child abuse. These infants will usually come to medical attention with the complaint of stopping breathing (apnea) with a color change. If this complaint from the parent is not taken seriously, the parent will often make the infant more ill before they see the doctor. Frequently, the infant is brought into the emergency room by ambulance after getting resuscitated by the paramedics. It is true that sometimes these babies do not survive the damage induced by the parent (usually only one parent is inducing the injury and the other is unaware). If there is no autopsy or death scene investigation, these infants can wrongly be labeled as SIDS. This is not often the case.
Most often, the infant will have recurrent episodes of this "illness" and seek medical attention with the same complaint. Doctors are aware of this Syndrome and are looking for this type of pattern. There may also be signs from the parent or a type of attitude that go along with this type of abuse.