Last Updated: April 5, 2006, 05:40:09 AM PDT

A 30-year-old woman admitted that she fooled a hospital for four days to get morphine, claiming that she had a deadly and painful disease. Then she was discovered, said Manteca Police Department spokesman Rex Osborn. Police call her a "professional patient."

She studied the symptoms of a fatal disease, simulated them, and made convincing comments to get the drug, police said.

Yodit Isak was arrested a week ago in a hospital bed at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Manteca.

People, particularly those addicted to morphine or heroin, try occasionally to do what Isak did, Osborn said.

Typically, however, they don't get past the emergency room before being discovered by hospital staff and asked to leave, or they are shuffled out by police, Osborn said.

Isak was arrested on suspicion of providing false information to police, obtaining prescription drugs illegally and grand theft. She checked into the hospital March 25 and was arrested March 29. She violated her probation in the Bay Area stemming from a conviction on similar charges, police said.

It's not clear how often people fake illness to obtain narcotics, how often they get away with it, or what the cost is to hospitals and insurers.

"I think it happens more frequently than we know," Osborn said.

While medical professionals and law enforcement officials in the area say not many people get away with faking serious ailments to get drugs, there always will be those who try. Others say it's tough to tell how many people may slip through unnoticed.

"I don't know if we always spot them," said David Araujo, head of the residency program at Mercy Medical Center Merced and a physician for 20 years.

"It's something I think that happens, but the problem is that pain is so subjective it's so hard to tell," added Brian Cole, owner of Bob's Pharmacy in Manteca.

Isak admitted to police that she faked illnesses at least three other times in the past month, police said. Investigators checked the records and discovered that one of those times was at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Manteca, where she was hospitalized March 3 to March8. At that time, she used a different name and identification, police said.

Officials at the hospital could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Hospital officials told police that Isak was so convincing, doctors admitted her for additional testing and pain management.

Tuesday, Isak remained in San Joaquin County Jail, under the name Yodit Hiskias. No bail was set.

Osborn said a nurse recognized Isak from the earlier visit and put an end to her morphine use and hospital stay.

The two visits generated a medical expense of more than $50,000. Isak does not have insurance, police said.

Modesto Police Department spokesman Rick Applegate said he's heard of people faking pain to get narcotics. But, like Osborn, he never has heard of a person getting as far as Isak admittedly did.

"I've been around for 11 years and have never heard anything like that," he said.

Araujo, who has been a physician at Mercy Medical Center Merced for 10 years, said it seems that people are trying to obtain narcotics fraudulently more and more frequently. He believes it's a consequence of the fact that more often today, doctors treat chronic nonmalignant pain using narcotics.

The use of heavy-duty pain meds is on the rise to treat ailments such as chronic back pain and pain from fibromyalgia. The drugs can be habit-forming.

"Some people will develop addictive behavior and try to obtain them fraudulently," Araujo said.

Health care providers are becoming more alert, he said.

"I think, in general, the health care providers are becoming more aware of this particular problem," he said.

In terms of prevention, Araujo cited a state program that allows doctors to ask for patient profiles to see how many prescriptions they have received. The state also alerts doctors to patients getting many prescriptions, he said.

"Every once in a while, I get a profile that shows a person has been to Modesto and Fresno, and I thought they'd only been coming here," he said.

Wendy Pinto, a spokeswoman for Memorial Medical Center, said the Modesto hospital would not answer questions about whether, and how often, staff at that hospital identify people who are pretending to be ill to get drugs.

The Stanislaus County Health Services Agency pharmacy identifies three to four fraudulent prescriptions a year, said Assistant Director John Schaper.

"Yeah, we have people who we find are shopping for narcotics, Vicodin in particular," he said.

As of January 2005, he said, doctors can order prescription forms that have water marks to avoid such fraud. The prescription forms cannot be copied without the water mark showing up. Plus, he said, the drugs have refill restrictions.

"It's just part of doing business," Schaper said. "We do not incur any significant, identifiable costs for that."

Cole, owner of Bob's Pharmacy, said it happens at all pharmacies. The tip-off, he said, is often a gradual increase each month in doses, or a prescription from another doctor. He said pharmacies also call each other when they discover a fraudulent prescription.

"We let the patient know. That's it. If you're not going to be upfront and honest with us, we can't fill prescriptions for you," Cole said.

Bee staff writer Melanie Turner can be reached at 599-8760 or mturner@modbee.com.