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Is it really possible to fake diabetes?

G

goji

Well-Known Member
Messages
251
I was reading this sad story today about a woman with Munchausen's by proxy, who among other things, managed to trick doctors into believing that her young son had diabetes. Apparently she did this by adding glucose to her son's urine.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 999018.ece

I'm assuming that doctors don't diagnose diabetes solely on the basis of a urine sample. So what I'm wondering is, how would she possibly have been able to alter her son's blood samples?

I assumed that a normal child would produce insulin when exposed to large amounts of sugar, so even if she forcefed him loads of lucozade, his pancreas would produce lots of insulin to bring his blood sugar down.

Is this right or have I got the physiology all wrong? Can normal children have abnormal responses to large amounts of sugar?
 
the Mail even says
'She increased his blood sugar levels so tests would back her view that he had diabetes'
I suppose if you ate a high carb meal just before a supposed fasting test then the level might be high but you wouldn't be able to keep up the fiction for long.
perhaps it's significant that according to the Independent
'The 35-year-old mother was eventually caught out when she made a false rape claim to cover up why her son had missed his latest diabetes test. Doctors became suspicious and alerted the police who quickly discovered that, despite the raft of specialist equipment in her home, the son was completely healthy.'
It's incredible that she managed to fool everybody for so long though It seems that it might be a case where lots of individuals have suspicions but are afraid to voice them.
 
phoenix said:
'The 35-year-old mother was eventually caught out when she made a false rape claim to cover up why her son had missed his latest diabetes test.
Click to expand...

Interesting then that she got caught out over the diabetes. I didn't see that part in the Times article. I wonder if she actually gave her son insulin? It doesn't mention anything about that.

I suppose it would be really difficult for doctors to ignore presenting complaints for fear of missing something. It must have been a dreadful experience for her son.
 
39 months is a joke, anyone who could do something like that to their own child should get life.
 
It begs the question ‘why would anyone want to fake diabetes’ and clearly that is because the woman is mentally unstable. :shock:

Hopefully she will now get the help she needs and her son will get back to a normal life but it could be a long hard road for both of them and the father as well. :|
 
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