Nina Blom grew up in the Netherlands convinced that she had a serious illness. Her mother took her from hospital to hospital, subjected her to tests and treatments, and even told her that she had an incurable muscle disease.
For years, she was made to use a wheelchair, receive dangerous medication and live as a patient, even though many tests could not explain what was wrong with her. A doctor began to suspect that the problem was not in her body, but in the narrative constructed around her.
The case was identified as paediatric illness falsification or induction, formerly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. For Nina, discovering the truth meant leaving a home where her childhood had been controlled by false diagnoses. Afterwards, she had to learn something enormous: how to live as a healthy person.
