A man has presented to more than a dozen hospitals across the country, each time with a dramatic, well-rehearsed account of a medical emergency, and bears multiple surgical scars from procedures sought under false pretences. What is this?

This is Munchausen's syndrome: repeated presentation to medical services with fabricated illness, an elaborate and inconsistent medical history, and physical evidence of previous procedures sought under false pretences, exactly as described. It is not pseudologia fantastica in the broader, undifferentiated sense, since Munchausen's syndrome differs from ordinary pseudologia fantastica in being specifically focused on the fabrication of illness and repeated engagement with medical services, rather than false claims more broadly. It is not malingering, since the underlying motivation in Munchausen's is generally understood to be the sick role itself rather than a clear, tangible external gain such as compensation. And it is not somatisation, in which physical symptoms arise from psychological distress without conscious fabrication.