They love it.
It's pure joy to them, an actual diagnosis. They will purposely harm themselves or worsen their illness during those lapses of attention, if they get used to attention from staff.
There was a woman who rubbed feces into her IV site during chemo, because going septic while on chemo is a real attention-getter. That's the kind of shit they pull. If you treat them neutrally, they tend to do that less, because they know the payoff isn't coming. But too many med workers aren't aware of how to handle Munchausen's patients, and almost reward them for "finally actually being sick". This increases their thirst and causes them to act out more.
We can't treat then the same. If we treated them the same, it endangers them. They'll harm themselves to get more attention, so we have to make sure they know it will not come, there will be no personal connection, no extra consideration. This is hard for medical people to do, nurses especially tend to feel sympathy for these patients.
When they're actually being treated for something serious, they're enjoying it. They seem to thrive on pain, laughing, smiling and t trying to get personally friendly with staff. It's very unpleasant to watch, especially if you are dealing with other patients who, quite normally, don't enjoy invasive tests and treatments.
edit: they're also very good at manufacturing crises to put on a show for their friends; they'll do this when the friends take a break from rallying around. They'll do it if their family member wants to go home for a few hours to sleep. They're manipulators.
