After spending 14 hours in the ER hallway and another 14 in an ER room cubical while waiting for a hospital bed/room, my 86 year old MIL has ER/hospital delirium. Read up on it, and it can take up to a year to recover and sometimes one doesn’t recover. Has anyone here had experience with this? Thanks.
I'm sorry you had to go through that!
I wonder if your Mom was dehydrated? That could cause a person to lose their balance, fall, and possibly black out.
Years ago my Dad experienced ICU Psychosis as explained to me by the ICU RN on duty. After a few days of being in the unit not being able to sleep his behavior became very strange.
A few months later in a hospital waiting room I ran across an article on ICU Psychosis in a Nursing magazine laying around. That verified everything the RN had told me.
ICU and ER not the same but elderly out of their element, sleep deprived, etc, probably results in same outcome.
Dad recovered from the delirium quickly after he got home.
Other wise I second what everyone else has said. hopefully MIL will recover to a more normal baseline.
Unfortunately, sometimes the dementia uptick that occurs in the hospital means some of it sticks around afterwards. Mom's dementia increased every time she was hospitalized, and she never was the same after that. It just kept getting worse.
My Mom [in her 90's] had delirium after she was brought to the hospital after having a major fall at her home. In a few days she was fine, and returned back home to be with my Dad. It wasn't until her second major fall that she had delirium again. I didn't notice any delirium after that but Mom was now living in long-term-care.