Hypo-delirium in dementia patient

[Danny46811]

My elderly dad has had dementia for a while and while it's been getting worse, he was still able to walk around, make his cup of tea, follow the news etc. A few days ago he had a fall and bumped his head. CT scan is clear, no acute head injury but he's in the hospital having tests. Since being in the hospital he has completely changed. He can't feed himself, can't hold cup, can't walk without aid, it's likely he's been through a massive decline and it's so upsetting to see. I can't get my head around that last week, he was fine. Has anyone experienced this with a loved one and did they ever recover or just get worse?

I've had some experience of dementia. I would guess it's partly due to the strange environment he's found himself in. He knew his home and was sort of on auto pilot there, going through the motions. Now he's in a completely new place and he's lost his bearings. Every dementia patient is different, but they all decline. Your father may recover somewhat if he returns home, but be prepared for continued decline. It's a very cruel disease. Sending you hugs.

I'm so sorry, dementia is awful.
A family member had a traumatic brain injury, at first they could speak a bit, feed themselves and walk, within a couple of weeks, they were non verbal, didn't recognise us , bed bound and double incontinent. The doctors couldn't explain the massive decline either.
💐

Thank you both. It's so upsetting and I really want to think he will be better when he gets home but I'm struggling to find any positive stories out there related to this, so maybe I'm clinging to false hope..

Have they checked for UTI? DGMIL used to fall over and go completely doolally with them and then after a course of antibiotics was as right as rain. It's v common

@Phunkychicken yes they said there was no sign of infection at all, I thought it might have been that too...

This happened to my late father to some degree each time he was admitted to hospital in the last few years of his life.He was only formally diagnosed with mild dementia a few weeks before his (unrelated) death.However, invariably on discharge he pretty much returned to his baseline and was reasonably independent.Infection, different environment, etc can cause temporary decline.Also I would ask staff if they are giving him sleeping tablets as in my dad's case this made it all worse.He may or may not return to his baseline but it's not unheard of!Good luck, it's hard x

Given the sudden dramatic decline associated with a head injury, an MRI would also be appropriate here. MRI can provide more detail of the soft tissues of the brain so might identify additional injury not seen on the CT. Or, if MRI not available, then a rescan with CT to detect any changes that might not have been visible immediately following the acute injury.

Speak to his medical team if you can.

Hi yes I had this with my mum. She was okay, getting more confused but okay in a nursing home. One day she ate her lunch fine, no problems then took herself off to bed about 5pm
I visited around 5.30 she was fast asleep. I managed to wake her up just to ask her why she was in bed really, as she would normally be having tea at this time. She didn’t understand why I was there and fell off back to sleep again.
I just knew she was dying, and told one of the carers he seemed surprised but said he’d keep an eye on her. I knew when I went to bed that night it wouldn’t be for long snd sure enough the phone rang at 3am mum had fallen out of bed and cut her head open. An ambulance was called and off she went to A&E we arrived to a skin wound but no other injuries she was still asleep.
The Dr said she was in Hypo delerium I’d never heard of it. We decided to send her back to the care home, she was put on end of life care.
She never really woke up again, but did give us hugs, bless her. She passed away 8 days later. How she managed that long I’ll never know she only had mouth wipes, no food. How old is your dad ? My mum was 92.

My mum had quite bad dementia which worsened dramatically when she was admitted to hospital. She developed hospital acquired delirium and became unmanageable to the extent where it took six members of staff to restrain her, and she had to be sedated. Things were very difficult for about three weeks, but she did start to calm down and improve, although she never got to her pre-hospital condition and was discharged to a care home. She did also have very frequent UTIs although there wasn’t a significant infection at the time she was admitted to hospital.

Yes my dad had this in hospital a few years ago. I was very doomy after reading about it, but actually he significantly improved.

Just an aside, but dehydration makes a significant impact on how my dad (advanced dementia) functions, and can itself be the cause of a swift decline. Then obviously he goes on to develop uti after a little while which makes it hard to convince everyone that no, He didn't have a uti when it all began but now he does...

I would push fluids and food. My dad found it very hard to eat when he was in hospital and I ended up taking food in to him every day and sitting while he ate, and leaving snacks that I knew he would eat.