By Crystal Lindell, PNN Columnist

You may have seen it by now. In a short, 15-second video, a nurse plays herself as well as a patient, who appears to be coughing and having trouble breathing. In the video, the nurse starts dancing and ignoring the patient.

The caption reads: “We know when y’all are faking.”

I have to tell you, it’s infuriating to watch.

I’m also wondering what she thinks would be the motivation to fake a cough. It’s not as though they typically treat coughs with pain medication. Is it because she thinks the patient just wants attention? Is that what’s happening?  

As a chronic pain patient who has been in and out of hospitals and doctor’s offices over the years, it’s my worst nightmare. To have a medical professional ignore me and my very real pain because they think they possess some special power that allows them to know with 100 percent certainty that someone is faking.  

I’m not alone in my outrage. The video inspired a viral hashtag, “PatientsAreNotFaking” with countless people sharing why the video wasn’t just annoying, but also dangerous.

Of course. I have my own stories. Doctors and nurses have brushed me off. There were the countless ER doctors who insisted that my multiple visits for abdominal pain were simply heartburn. One doctor even said to me, “It’s not your gallbladder.” 

It was my gallbladder.  

There was also the nurse who ignored my pleas for help after giving me a shot of pain medication that immediately made me nauseous. She told me to “drink some water” and sent me home instead of giving me an easy anti-nausea shot.

I threw up three times on the drive home and then multiple times for the next 10 hours. It was one of the worst nights of my life.  

And then there was the rheumatologist years ago who so easily could have caught my hypermobile Ehlers Danlos syndrome. I had gone to see him because of my unexplained rib pain, and as he examined me, he moved my leg, looked up and said, “Your knee isn’t supposed to bend that way.” Then he shrugged and told me that nothing was wrong with me.  

It would take four years before I finally got the hEDS diagnosis that explained my daily, debilitating chronic pain. 

But let’s take things one step further. Let’s enter the world of the video. Let’s assume patients are faking. So what? What’s the worst-case scenario? Medical professionals have to, God forbid, check in on a patient? Isn’t that their job anyway? 

This issue especially hits close to home for chronic pain patients. Every medical professional’s worst fear seems to be that they’ll give opioids to someone who just needs them because they’re addicted. And I have to ask, again, so what?  

Here’s the two scenarios if you give someone opioids in that situation: 

1. They aren’t faking and you’re helping someone who’s dealing with legitimate physical pain.

2. You’re giving a safe, controlled supply of opioids to someone who’s suffering from such awful withdrawal that they have resorted to trying to get to pain medication at an ER. Oh no! That might accidentally help someone? The horror!

Yes, giving pain medication to people dealing with addiction could lead to a flood of patients in the ER asking for opioids. Honestly, that’s why I support making hydrocodone OTC. It would keep people who are dealing with minor pain out of the ER, as well as those dealing with addiction and withdrawal. It might also prevent many of the overdoses caused by people buying counterfeit drugs off the street. 

The thing is, it’s human nature to assume someone is faking. It’s actually a defense mechanism. Medical professionals see so many sick people in their work that for many the only way they can cope is to convince themselves that most of them are probably faking. It’s much easier to believe that than it is to believe that so many people are suffering.  

The other issue is that people’s instincts are awful. They are often based on subconscious prejudice that they may not even realize is a factor. It’s human nature to separate yourself from other groups as a form of self-preservation. Unfortunately, that leads to a lot of medical professionals assuming that any patient complaining of pain is probably faking it. 

The fact that the nurse who made this particular video, Danyelle Solie, did nothing but double down when faced with criticism shows how poorly-matched she is her for job.  Solie told a Canadian website she’s worked in healthcare for five years.

“I absolutely will not be bullied into apologising or deleting a video because some people disagree with me,” she said in a Tweet thread. “Humor has always been what made me stand out to the people I work with and the patients I help.”

Solie regularly posts comical videos online using the name “D Rose.” Some videos make fun of herself and others make fun of patients or the healthcare system in general. The one about patients faking has been viewed about 15 million times. 

We should expect more from medical professionals. They should be able to wade past their subconscious instincts and make an effort to treat patients fairly. They also shouldn’t joke about such dangerous things.  

And when in doubt? Here’s some advice to all the medical professionals out there: Just assume the patient is telling the truth. Trust me, it’s what you’ll want when you get sick.  

Crystal Lindell is a journalist who lives in Illinois. She eats too much Taco Bell, drinks too much espresso, and spends too much time looking for the perfect pink lipstick. She has hypermobile EDS.