This pathologic mental condition is found in parents (or other caretakers of young children or other helpless dependents) who cause their dependents to become ill or to have accidents in order to obtain attention from medical personnel (parents of severely ill children often get a lot of attention from nurses and other well-wishers). Parents with this syndrome have sometimes been discovered tampering with medical equipment such as intravenous lines in order to make their children even sicker. Parents with this syndrome, when caught, seem not to have any realization that what they've been doing is wrong or truly damaging to their children.