Fake teen doctor treats real patients

A teenager is in big trouble for treating patients while pretending to be a doctor’s assistant.

Matthew Scheidt, 17, worked at Osceola Regional Medical Center in the city of Kissimmee in Florida as a clerk before he lied to hospital officials and told them he was a 23-year-old doctor’s assistant. The hospital gave Matthew an ID that allowed him to work in the ER, where he did CPR on one patient and physical examinations on others.

The teen told officials his mother worked with the people who owned the hospital and tried at least twice to get a special ID that would allow him into restricted areas. When officials accused him of lying, he told them he was an undercover cop.

Now the real cops have arrested Matthew. They say they'd had to ask him to leave a police project for teens called Explorer because he wore a bullet-proof vest in public and they were afraid that people might think he was a real police officer.

Matthew isn’t the first teen to pretend to be something he's not. The 2002 film Catch Me If You Can is about a real-life criminal called Frank Abagnale Jr., who successfully faked being an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a federal agent, while in his late teens and early twenties.

Watch Frank, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, as a fake doctor: