CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Faking cancer about affection more than money, doctor says

Dayton Daily News (OH) - 5/23/2015

May 23--Local communities have opened their hearts -- and their wallets -- in support of at least five Ohio women they believed to be coping with devastating forms of cancer in recent years, only to learn it may have all been lies.

Each of these women has been criminally prosecuted because they accepted money from fundraisers, but what actually motivates these elaborate deceptions is often more complicated than financial gain.

They could be among hundreds of thousands of Americans who suffer from what mental health professionals call factitious disorders -- the most severe form is commonly known as Munchausen's syndrome.

Patients with factitious disorder feign, exaggerate or actually self-induce illness for emotional gratification, according to Dr. Marc Feldman, a psychiatrist who has worked with fake cancer cases since 1988 and author of, "Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder."

The most recent local example involves a Champaign County woman accused of lying about having inoperable brain cancer. A grand jury indicted Heather Gaus, 34, of Urbana, on May 7 on theft and receiving stolen property charges.

"This is not that new, though I'm hearing about more and more cases over time," Feldman said. "It seemed to spike upward with the advent of social media. That became a new conduit for people to manufacture tales about illness."

The American Psychiatric Association now estimates about 1 percent of all patients admitted to general hospitals have factitious disorders, adding significant costs to the health care system.

"Multiple that by billions and billions of dollars spent on health care and it's a much bigger problem than people have acknowledged to date," Feldman said.

Dramatic illness

Patients are usually women, young to middle-aged, and commonly express some sort of emotional neglect or even abuse during childhood, he said. Cancer is the most common factitious disease.

"I think because it's such a dramatic illness," Feldman said. "It's common enough that people don't think to question it. And also, if you survive cancer it has a really positive connotation that you're a fighter and a survivor."

Gaus is accused of collecting more than $1,000 from a cancer fundraiser in her name, although prosecutors said they still don't know how much was donated in total.

She also received more than $1,000 in online donations through the site youcaring.com and the Eagles lodge in Mechanicsburg raised thousands for her at another benefit, organizers said.

Gaus pleaded not guilty in Champaign County Common Pleas Court Friday, and is free on her own recognizance pending trial.

In court, she declined to answer questions from the Springfield News-Sun.

It can be difficult to distinguish if someone is lying for personal gain or because they have a factitious disorder. Typically people are seeking care and concern they feel unable to get in any other way, Feldman said.

"It's often confused with or overlaps with malingering, where people do the same thing, but it's not a mental disorder and they're doing it for tangible gain like money or evasion of criminal prosecution, narcotic drugs or disability payments."

Other prosecutions

It's the financial gain that has landed some of the hoaxers in prison.

In 2003, another Champaign County woman, Teresa L. Milbrandt, was convicted of grand theft and child endangering after a nine-month hoax in which she said her then 7-year-old daughter was dying of cancer.

The girl was given sleeping pills, had her head shaved and was made to wear a surgical mask. She was also placed in counseling to prepare her for death, according to court documents. Fundraising efforts brought in more than $30,000.

Milbrandt was sentenced to more than six years in prison.

Her husband, Robert, was also convicted of child endangering and theft and sentenced to nearly five years in prison, although he maintained that he had no part in the hoax and believed his daughter had cancer.

In 2013, Michelle Mundy, of Springfield, pleaded guilty to felony theft for lying about having lymphoma and taking money raised in her honor. She was sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of community control, then ordered to pay $5,750 in restitution.

Neither Milbrandt nor Mundy could be reached for comment.

Last year, Emily Creno, 32, of Utica in central Ohio, grabbed headlines when she was sentenced to 18 months in prison for theft and child endangering for pretending her son was dying of cancer. She was ordered to pay back nearly $3,000.

She shaved her 5-year-old's head and made him undergo more than 20 blood tests and 150 hours of inpatient EEG monitoring, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The boy was also prescribed medication for seizures he didn't have.

And in April, Dayton-native Meaghan Hudson was indicted on several felony charges in California alleging she lied about having multiple myeloma and accepted more than $5,000 in donations. Her high school friends held a fundraiser last year at Poelking Lanes in Dayton and flew her in for the event.

Appearing on "Dr. Phil" on Monday, she echoed what other hoaxers have said -- it wasn't about the money, she just wanted attention and love from her family.

"I lied to get access to something that I didn't have. That being love or attention," Hudson said. "I didn't feel like I could go to anyone or had that love and attention that I might have needed at that time. That set the course for many years of feeling alone or lying for attention."

She said once the lie was out, she kept going because she felt like she had to. When the donation check from her GiveForward.com page arrived, she said it felt too late to say anything.

"Any material gains are unwanted or unsolicited, but have to be accepted to keep the game going," Feldman said.

Mundy admitted to detectives that she deposited the checks she received from fundraisers and used some of the cash for personal use, but according to a court affidavit, she didn't initially lie to make money.

"She was looking for the attention and had no idea that people would do fundraisers on her behalf," the affidavit said.

During her sentencing, she told the court, "It was never about money. It was about a woman searching for affection."

The prosecution in Milbrandt's case painted her as purposefully deceitful and a career criminal who lied to pay for a gambling habit. She had previous convictions for stealing a credit card, passing bad checks and receiving stolen property.

But she told a different story from prison, telling reporters in 2004 that she did it all to save her marriage.

''I knew how much he cared about (her) and if she's sick, I thought, he's not going to leave us. I just said she had cancer and next thing I know, people were giving me money,'' she told the Columbus Dispatch.

Creno also cited saving her marriage as motivation to lie about her son's cancer.

Slap in the face

For the people who get taken in by these stories, the reason behind the deceit may be of little consequence.

"To lie to us is a slap in the face," said Tony Groves owner of the Woodstock Bar and Grill, which hosted a fundraiser for Gaus in 2013. "That is money that could have gone to help someone that did have cancer."

Urbana resident Heather Thurman was in first grade with Milbrandt's daughter during that cancer hoax.

"Why would you think of anything, cancer specifically, to do a fraud because there are many people out there who are dealing with it and it's very sad," Thurman said.

For those genuinely battling the disease and shouldering its financial burdens, that fraud can worsen their pain and make it more difficult to get help.

"It's wrong and they should be in jail," said Richard Kelly, of Springfield. "Even if I didn't have cancer I wouldn't understand."

Kelly is currently undergoing radiation treatment at Springfield Regional Cancer Center for prostate cancer while his 17-year-old son is preparing for chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia at Dayton Children's Hospital. The family is making numerous trips between Springfield and Dayton and living on one income.

"The more (hoaxes) happen, there are less resources out there," he said.

Hearing about these cases makes him wary of giving money to someone who claims they need help with medical bills.

Consumer advocates agree there is little people can do to determine if someone is lying about a medical diagnosis because of federal privacy laws.

"Unless the lies become fairly obvious, there probably isn't very much people can do," Feldman said. "We don't want to become so cynical that we start doubting every cancer story we hear and questioning patients in ways that could be really hurtful."

Dozens of websites offer the ability to solicit donations from friends, family and total strangers. Most come with a disclaimer that they don't vet the veracity of solicitations and warn donors to only give money to people they know personally.

Giving to established cancer charities is also encouraged, but those too need to be vetted.

Four sham cancer charities run by a family in Arizona and Tennessee were charged last week by the Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement in all 50 states for allegedly bilking $187 million from donors.

Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services Inc., Children's Cancer Fund of America, the Breast Cancer Society and their operators are accused of spending less than 3 percent of that money on helping cancer patients while the rest went to pay professional fundraisers and buy extravagant trips, vehicles, gym memberships, Jet Ski outings, dating website subscriptions, luxury cruises, and tickets to concerts for employees and family members.

___

(c)2015 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)

Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Nationwide News