THE TRIFECTA

For about 3 years, I worked in an industrial medicine physical therapy clinic.  Functional Capacity Evaluations or FCE *,was a test we administered here.   Acquiring a medical disability or social security disability was one of the purposes for administering this test. . Occasionally a client will walk into the department for an FCE and will not be completely truthful about their condition.  

One day a  young man around 30 years of age, walked into the physical therapy clinic for an FCE to determine the need for medical disability. As he walked through the department to the testing equipment, he was dragging his left leg and grimacing with pain.  He was asked to rate his pain in the leg prior to beginning the test  on a scale of 0 to 10.  0 being no pain and 10 being emergency room pain and if rated at 10, 911 would be called to take him to the hospital. 

As he sat that calmly he responded with "9 1/2" and described the pain in his left leg.   Hmmmmm, magnifying the pain a bit? 

This was documented and the test began.   During the first half of the test, it was noted that the young man dragged his left leg  as he walked from activity to activity and continually complained of severe pain.  During a repetitive activity lasting for about 5 minutes he must have forgotten his leg was hurting and started showing no signs of pain.  After the task was over and he began walking to the next activity, a light bulb went off in his head and he remembered that he had said his leg was hurting.  However he must not have remembered which leg, because....

Yep that's right, he started  dragging the right leg.   The second half of the FCE he dragged his right leg around, grimacing with pain.  I  just observed and documented what I actually saw without questioning the client.   When the individual left the clinic, he probably thought he had pulled off the lie.  But he was busted big time. This young man  lied, magnified and was malingering or not wanting to get better.  I guess you could say he hit the trifecta.