Not the best way to spend time in med school

[AlterEgo8221]

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http://gawker.com/j%27s%27-dirr-cancer-facebook-/

http://warriorelihoax.wordpress.com/

Cliff notes: an apparent NEOCOM BS-MD student spent the last 7-10ish years (depending on whose timeline you believe) creating a fake persona online. It eventually grew into an entire fake family with 11 kids, including a son facing his 3rd recurrence of cancer, and a trauma surgeon mom who died in a car accident on Mother's Day.

Given the about 75 fake Facebook profiles of these family members and their friends, the hundreds of photos stolen from elsewhere on the internet, the support bracelets, and the fake kids' drawings, she must not have had much time for studying!

 

[QuizzicalApe]

A story brought to us by someone named AlterEgo.

I see the game you're playing, neocom bs-md student.

 

[AlterEgo8221]

Touche, Ape.

I've posted about this story on another website using my real-life name, so on the off chance that there is someone that sees both, I didn't want to be associated with my usual SDN handle.

 

[Cinclus]

Wow. This person sounds a bit batty. I wonder how well she could have possibly been doing in med school while taking so much time to create her own little world.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Just read the article... Wow. If the article is true, how crazy!!

 

[hiyaman]

Wow that's sick. Pathological liar much? lol.

 

[Go Ducks]

This reminds me of the movie Catfish. Clearly mental health is an issue in the Catfish case. I can only assume that's true for this person too. Once you get past the creepy, it's pretty tragically sad.

 

[Narmerguy]

This reminds me of the movie Catfish. Clearly mental health is an issue in the Catfish case. I can only assume that's true for this person too. Once you get past the creepy, it's pretty tragically sad.

Yeah, especially for the people who seriously became emotionally invested in these personas. That was a well written article though. I felt hooked, I had to keep on reading

 

[pietachok]

I hope somebody on SDN comments on whether or not this woman was/is actually at NEOCOM. Compared to maintaining 75 Facebook accounts, I don't think faking a NEOCOM email address would be that hard. I didn't think the language "he" used sounded like a med student (or graduated physician) when disucssing health issues.

She didn't seem to take any money from anyone (unless you count tricking people into donating to actual pediatric cancer charities). So I wonder if she'd even be dismissed from school or denied a medical license if she were a med student.

...I guess we never really know what all of our lovely classmates are up to.

 

[Valadi]

Odd as it is, but there was someone in my med school class who serially made fake facebook accounts, friended people in the class, and started bizarre stories.

Med students are an interesting breed.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Odd as it is, but there was someone in my med school class who serially made fake facebook accounts, friended people in the class, and started bizarre stories.

Med students are an interesting breed.

Are you in Ohio?

 

[Cannon]

Pretty awesome to keep that up for a decade.

 

[YH5]

Naming a band "The vas deferens" sounds exactly like something a med student would do.

 

[pre med 2014]

This reminds me of the movie Catfish. Clearly mental health is an issue in the Catfish case. I can only assume that's true for this person too. Once you get past the creepy, it's pretty tragically sad.

Why is it tragically sad?

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Why is it tragically sad?

Someone has a disease. That's always sad. No one likes diseases, especially mental ones.

Is there a disease where you are manic all the time? That might not a sad disease....

 

[pre med 2014]

Someone has a disease. That's always sad. No one likes diseases, especially mental ones.

Is there a disease where you are manic all the time? That might not a sad disease....

just so long as the mental disease you say she 'has' is not related to obtaining a medical license.

 

[duckie99]

I was about to post the same story. This one has her name published... wow she is screwed. If the school doesn't kick her out for some sort of honor code violation something is wrong with the system.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ctional-social-network-accounts-11-years.html

 

[duckie99]

Someone has a disease. That's always sad. No one likes diseases, especially mental ones.

Is there a disease where you are manic all the time? That might not a sad disease....

Look, some "mental diseases" are almost purely political. A good example is that homosexuality was removed from the DSM via political pressure and not because of some new understanding of homosexuality (not for or against just pointing out). The one for this girl called "Munchausen disorder by internet" sounds made up and is not recognized regardless. Also even if you have a mental illness it doesn't exclude you (in all cases) of responsibility and I know for a fact that Munchausen syndrome by proxy, often seen in mothers who make their children sick by poisoning and such, are held criminally responsible. Though she may have a mental illness, she is not psychotic and knows what she did was wrong.

There wasn't a crime committed but the school likely will remove her because this type of behavior is beyond reprehensible. They also likely don't want negative press of how they can justify that this girl should be a physician and take care of real patients. How can she be trusted? She's got to go.

 

[StephenMaturin]

I was about to post the same story. This one has her name published... wow she is screwed. If the school doesn't kick her out for some sort of honor code violation something is wrong with the system.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ctional-social-network-accounts-11-years.html

I know it's shocking that someone on the internet is misrepresenting herself, but I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's kind of a weird thing, but I can understand how something that started as a simple lark at age 11 just snowballed. She wasn't scamming people for money or anything. I absolutely disagree with the idea that her school should take some sort of action against her.

If she is reading this thread: Props on the 11 year hoax! The bracelets were a nice touch.

 

[tankgunner]

has anyone considered the possibility that the discoverer of the hoax and the hoaxer are the same person?

 

[CaptainSSO]

It seems like the lady who outed her wanted attention and power just as bad as the person who was behind the hoax.

 

[duckie99]

has anyone considered the possibility that the discoverer of the hoax and the hoaxer are the same person?

That wouldn't be smart when the real name of the hoaxer is known and public on the internet...

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Look, some "mental diseases" are almost purely political. A good example is that homosexuality was removed from the DSM via political pressure and not because of some new understanding of homosexuality (not for or against just pointing out). The one for this girl called "Munchausen disorder by internet" sounds made up and is not recognized regardless. Also even if you have a mental illness it doesn't exclude you (in all cases) of responsibility and I know for a fact that Munchausen syndrome by proxy, often seen in mothers who make their children sick by poisoning and such, are held criminally responsible. Though she may have a mental illness, she is not psychotic and knows what she did was wrong.

There wasn't a crime committed but the school likely will remove her because this type of behavior is beyond reprehensible. They also likely don't want negative press of how they can justify that this girl should be a physician and take care of real patients. How can she be trusted? She's got to go.

Just because it's "sad" that something happened doesn't mean I don't think they are responsible. Haha, it's "tragically sad" when someone gets murdered, but that doesn't mean the murderer should get off free.

Nice try though.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

It seems like the lady who outed her wanted attention and power just as bad as the person who was behind the hoax.

Lol, the person who outed her didn't create a charity and 70 fake Facebook pages propagating a fake story.... But I see your point

 

[pre med 2014]

Look, some "mental diseases" are almost purely political. A good example is that homosexuality was removed from the DSM via political pressure and not because of some new understanding of homosexuality (not for or against just pointing out). The one for this girl called "Munchausen disorder by internet" sounds made up and is not recognized regardless. Also even if you have a mental illness it doesn't exclude you (in all cases) of responsibility and I know for a fact that Munchausen syndrome by proxy, often seen in mothers who make their children sick by poisoning and such, are held criminally responsible. Though she may have a mental illness, she is not psychotic and knows what she did was wrong.

There wasn't a crime committed but the school likely will remove her because this type of behavior is beyond reprehensible. They also likely don't want negative press of how they can justify that this girl should be a physician and take care of real patients. How can she be trusted? She's got to go.

I doubt anything is going to happen to her. People on the internet are pretty mean, exaggerate opinions and such.

 

[pre med 2014]

...

 

[Go Ducks]

I definitely don't think that this person should be a doctor. She should be held accountable for her actions. Doctors need to be honest; this is a quality that she certainly lacks. However I find it sad that she didn't get counseling and help at age 11, to prevent her from going down this twisted path and becoming a twisted person. I also think some sort of mental illness is at play because many people from different walks of life who don't know about each other display the same completely bizarre behaviors.

People who do things that are driven by mental illness are held accountable in the court of law if they knew right from wrong at the time. I still find their stories tragic because the crimes are often wouldn't have happened if they weren't mentally ill. This does not mean that I feel that they are any less responsible. (I don't know if this girl committed any crimes in this particular case.)

This is very different from homosexuality being taken out of the DSM. This girl, and unfortunately quite a few like her, are displaying pathologically destructive patterns of behavior that destroy their lives and the lives of the people they touch. Also, Maxillofacial, what do you mean "not for or against it"? You're a future physician, please don't tell me that your "not for" homosexuality being taken out of DSM and no longer being treated like a mental illness.

 

[Rubiconcrossing]

well she did raise 1000 dollars for cancer, not the way i would have gone about it however.

 

[pre med 2014]

...

 

[pre med 2014]

I definitely don't think that this person should be a doctor. She should be held accountable for her actions. Doctors need to be honest; this is a quality that she certainly lacks. However I find it sad that she didn't get counseling and help at age 11, to prevent her from going down this twisted path and becoming a twisted person. I also think some sort of mental illness is at play because many people from different walks of life who don't know about each other display the same completely bizarre behaviors.

People who do things that are driven by mental illness are held accountable in the court of law if they knew right from wrong at the time. I still find their stories tragic because the crimes are often wouldn't have happened if they weren't mentally ill. This does not mean that I feel that they are any less responsible. (I don't know if this girl committed any crimes in this particular case.)

This is very different from homosexuality being taken out of the DSM. This girl, and unfortunately quite a few like her, are displaying pathologically destructive patterns of behavior that destroy their lives and the lives of the people they touch. Also, Maxillofacial, what do you mean "not for or against it"? You're a future physician, please don't tell me that your "not for" homosexuality being taken out of DSM and no longer being treated like a mental illness.

I think it depends on what crime she committed, we will see if and what they can charge her with in all of that mess.

 

[Go Ducks]

I think it depends on what crime she committed, we will see if and what they can charge her with in all of that mess.

I'm not saying that I know whether the school has the right to let her go, because I don't. I'm saying that she *shouldn't* be a doctor because a doctor who doesn't respect the privacy of others (like stealing the pictures of their sick children) and who lies compulsively, making up new lies when being confronted with their old lies, is bad news.