SALT LAKE CITY — A woman who allegedly faked having cancer for three years so she could have access to prescribed pain medication is being investigated, according to court documents.

As of Tuesday, the 45-year-old woman had not been arrested or charged. But according to a newly unsealed search warrant affidavit served in June by the Utah Insurance Fraud Division, the woman was admitted to the Huntsman Cancer Institute's intensive care unit in May "for sepsis and cancer related pain. (The woman) reported a history of endometrial cancer and an immune deficiency," according to the warrant.

But when a physician's assistant started asking the woman about her medical history, her version "was not consistent with procedural treatment of endometrial cancer or immune deficiency," the warrant states.

As doctors continued to investigate her alleged medical history, they talked to other doctors she had allegedly seen. But those doctors told investigators they never had a patient by that name, according to the warrant.

When investigators talked to the woman's primary care physician, he "stated that he did not have any actual medical records that confirmed (she) had cancer, but had been prescribing her pain medication" because of the information the woman had been giving him.

The lead investigator finally confronted the woman, who could not verify she actually had cancer.

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The woman "admitted that she did not have cancer and was not being treated. (She) said that she was giving herself saline injections to make her family think that she was being treated for cancer," the warrant states. "Since October 2016, she has repeatedly told family and medical providers that she is being treated for cancer in order to obtain controlled substance pain medication. In the process of obtaining these medications, her medical insurance has been billed and paid for medical appointments and prescriptions."

In 2017, the woman took a plea in abeyance to misdemeanor forgery and identity fraud charges, according to court records.

"Between April 2016 and July 2016, defendant forged the signature of a physician for at least three prescriptions for narcotics. Each of these prescriptions was done in the name of different family members, using their name and personal identifying information in order to fill the prescription," charging documents state.

But the woman violated the terms of her probation, and in March the plea in abeyance agreement was dropped and guilty convictions were entered, and she was placed on two years' probation, court records state.

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