Munchhausen’s Syndrome by Proxy
Six year old Eric is continuously brought to a local clinic by his mother Monica for treatment of abdominal cramps or according to the mother, appendicitis. Eric is the only son and lives with his mother. With each appointment, Eric symptoms become more progressive, resulting in his hospitalization. As his length of stay increases, Eric’s doctor, Dr. Spencer begins to suspect that something is wrong and suspects Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, however, none of the other hospital staff members believes Dr. Spencer. As Eric remains hospitalized, his hospital roommate, Ben, begins to develop similar symptoms Eric has been presenting. Dr. Spencer would like to monitor Eric’s mother without her knowledge, but the
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This paper will examine Munchhausen’s Syndrome by Proxy and the surveillance of families, describe and apply relevant principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and fidelity from the ANA Code of Ethics, discuss some available resources that might help resolve the dilemma and finally discuss the dilemma outcomes particular to this patient’s situation.
Surveillance of Families Munchausen by proxy syndrome presents one of the most ambiguous forms of child abuse as most perpetrators exemplify model parenting. In the case above, set in the year 1994, Eric’s mother, Monica seemed like a model parent. She was loving and cared for Eric despite being a single parent. However as the case continued to grow, following Dr. Spencer’s restraining order against Monica, it was found that Eric had a total of 26 hospitalizations for abdominal cramps prior to the present one. Dr. Spencer is left with no choice but to take matters into her own hands and determines the need for covert recordings to process as evidence in the court against the hospital’s knowledge. The problem she faces is whether surveillance of families without their knowledge and consent is acceptable evidence as well as morally acceptable. According to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitutions of the United States (1791): "The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
Melvin Fuller is a patient on the medical-surgical unit who was admitted during the previous evening for exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is an 83-year-old widower with two children who both live an hour away. He lives in a small house and is independent in his care. He has a housekeeper who comes in once a week to clean and fix some meals for him. He was brought to the hospital by his son who was visiting. His children visit him at least once a month. Mr. Fuller has COPD and type 2 diabetes. Alicia Brown is a 19-year-old nursing student in her first clinical rotation. She has been assigned to Mr. Fuller for morning care. Alicia enters Mr. Fuller’s room and notices that coffee has been spilled on his bed and
Advocacy is a fundamental responsibility in nursing because patients are inherently vulnerable (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). The scenario presented is challenging because, although the nurse suspects child abuse, there is a lack of explicit evidence. Reporting suspected child abuse is a legal obligation for nurses, but the result may have devastating effects for the family. To prevent inaccurate conclusions, a professional nurse should question the mother and child separately and attempt to uncover the
Qu. 1. Is Tavion’s mother’s statement of concern of abuse sufficient to warrant further investigation by the hospital?
This sentinel event involves child abduction from the surgical unit of Nightingale Community Hospital on Thursday, September 14, 2014 at approximately 1230hrs. The patient, a three-year old female, arrived accompanied by her mother, for an outpatient surgical procedure at 0800hrs and proceeded to registration where all currently required documentation was completed and signed by the mother; this included the authorization forms for the surgery. After registration, the patient and her
To make a short story even shorter, this story is about a doctor who was called by a sick child’s parents to come diagnose the young girl. Throughout the story the little girl refuses to let the doctor come anywhere close to examining her. No matter how much the parents try to calm the child down, they seem to make the situation even worse.
In this assignment you will practice what you have learned in chapters 5 and 7 in the Medical Law and Ethics textbook:
Ethics, in our society, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, now part of the Department of Health and Human Services, created The Belmont Report, which is one such safeguard establishing principles for all human research (USDHHS, 1979). This paper will discuss the ethical issue of informed consent within The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the disregard to parts of the Belmont Report, as well as compare the role of the nurse in charge of Henrietta’s care versus the standards of care set for modern nurses.
Pearson fixates her memoir on several different instances of medical mishaps that have happened in her career. For instance, she talks about the tragic death of her patient Mr. Rose. This patient provides Dr. Pearson with a life lesson that it is important to cherish the things you have then the things you wish you had. In this case, Dr. Pearson regrets cherishing the remaining time she had with Mr. Rose before he passes away. Another instance she learns a life lesson would be with her patient Elias, a young boy diagnosed with brain cancer. Even though Elias was slowly dying, his parents continued surgical procedures and heavily depended on the hospital staff to create a miracle. Dr. Pearson knew that Elias would not be able to recover, but she continued to assist through the surgeries as her “hands were tied”. Nevertheless, Dr. Pearson reflects that she could have put down her surgical tools and said no; instead, she participated in the surgeries. Later, Dr. Pearson realizes that her role and her identity as a doctor is to help her patients with their problems and to try to solve them as much as she can in a humane and respectable
Daniel’s mother used disguised compliance to draw the attention away of the professionals from the claims of harm. Professionals not on just this case but on many cases have failed to work with disguised compliance and fall into the trap. Professionals need to ask parents and carers to justify things but also listen to other sources such as the child and other agencies to come up with the real story.
He presents to the clinic with weakness, which is felt all over the body, fatigue that lasts all day and loss of appetite for the past several months accompanied with nausea, which occurs throughout the day. He says that he never feels like eating when he consumes alcohol, not even his favorite foods, and only does so because his wife asks him too. He is unclear as to when his symptoms initially began, but states that he has gotten worse in the past year. As we further investigate we find that Mr. Martin thought his symptoms were due to his stressful home environment. He is caring for his son, Mark, with a spinal cord injury from an accident while intoxicated. His mother is also living in their household and his son, Anthony, has been non-compliant with his schizophrenia medication, creating disturbances at home. He is not sure whether his weakness is due to his back pain, but he does notice that he is unable to do as much physical work as he used to. Mr. Martin says that he often self-medicates with alcohol and prescription pain killers, when obtainable, to treat
Munchausen syndrome and MSBP are included in the DSM-III R category of factitious disorders and therefore are elusive syndromes that are difficult to diagnose and recognize (2). "Because symptoms in factitious disorders are not connected with obvious gain, the absence of external gain suggests that factitious disorders like Munchausen syndrome serve some psychological need, but do so by maladaptive methods (2)." The syndrome is not recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Psychiatric Association (10). Lack of official recognition from the medical community has created an air of confusion around MSBP. Munchausen syndrome is decidedly a psychiatric disorder involving the patient assuming a role, but the reason for skepticism concerning MSBP is that is clearly a form of child abuse, as
The patient is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy. Caulfield's appearance is tall for his age and surprisingly has quite a few gray hairs at the age of sixteen. Holden comes from an upper-middle class family. His family has enough money to support Holden with many luxuries including skates and expensive suitcases. It appears that Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield aren?t there to talk, care, and be there for Holden, which seems to drive Holden away from his family. However, he has an intimate bond with his younger siblings, who embody innocence and youth. The death of his brother Allie has left a large scar on Holden. He has a cherished and intimate relationship with his young
This essay will introduce the details of phenylketonuria and Huntington’s disease. Using these facts, the difference in screening policy between the diseases will be morally justified. The arguments will relate to the desire for informed autonomy, the differing prognoses for the diseases, and the avoidance of moral conflict. Then, using a test case, arguments will be made for circumstances in which one would be morally obligated under the principles of beneficence and justice to be tested for Huntington’s disease. Criticisms for that stance will be noted using the principle of nonmaleficence and rebutted with further arguments for beneficence. Overall, the essay will demonstrate that while Huntington’s disease screening is justifiably not legally required, unlike mandatory PKU screening, testing for Huntington’s disease can be a moral obligation.
Lanesha is a 12 year old girl that has been having trouble with her temper and her anger in almost every aspect of her daily life. Her medicine and compliance to her treatment plan are no different. As a teenager, she does not want to continually be hassled and bothered. So to avoid this she constantly is telling the providers lies, or in her mind, “what they want to hear.” (http://support.mchtraining.net/national_ccce/case1/Flash/activity1.html). Lanesha has a sense of neglect from her grandmother because she states that she want to act like everything is fine as to appease her Grandmothers temperament. Marietta, also shares in frustration but also has a great deal of added stress as she also cares for her 10 year old grandchild and also her older ailing mother. Marietta exudes many of the qualities spoken by Dr. Horky in her presentation; her own age is taking a toll on her ability to care for Lanesha, she is worried about Lanesha. Due to Lanesha’s age and behavior however, Marietta is experiencing depression and grief. Almost portrays a sense that she has given up, like she has done all that she can. (Horky, n.d.). Other socioeconomic issues are in Marietta’s forefront.
Michael H., a 68-year-old man, was admitted for exploratory surgery of his abdomen. He is frail, and his attending physician describes him as “emotionally labile.” Marcy R. is a social worker at BFL General Hospital, who is assigned to the unit that Michael H has been admitted. After Michael’s surgery, Marcy R. was approached by Michael H.’s daughter, Ellen B. in which Ellen has told Marcy that her father’s physician had just informed her that the lab report from the exploratory surgery shows that her father has terminal cancer. Ellen said that she and the family are in shock and they have decided that they not want the hospital staff to tell her father about the terminal nature of his cancer once he recovers from anesthesia. In this essay, I will discuss the ethical dilemma of “to tell Michael or not to tell him he has terminal cancer. He has the right to confidentiality by not withholding information from him when he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, informed consent, and self-determination.