It's Munchausen syndrome.  It's a factitious disorder discovered in 1951 wherein the sufferer goes to elaborate lengths to fake medical problems, essentially for attention and love.  There's also Munchausen by proxy, which is when the sufferer causes someone in his or her care to become ill, often by poisoning.  It's mostly found in women, but a few years ago I knew an 18-year-old boy who pretended to have lung cancer, aggressive and fatal (this is often a sign of Munchausen's- the person in question will have the worst possible form of the illness so that it's as dramatic as possible).  He even starved himself so that he would appear to be sick and convinced us all that the reason he was moving to live with his aunt was so that he could start treatment.  A few months later, it turned out that he was perfectly fine and working at a drive-through.  Bizarre.