(Newser)
– A 31-year-old patient with COVID-19 was attacked by cats. That happened after she was being tested in a Japanese laboratory. Before that, she had been on fire, unable to move and scared. “It was so real,” she said. But it was not like that. Once thought to primarily affect older patients, often those with dementia, hospital delirium is now affecting patients of all ages. New York Times reports. According to the data, more than two-thirds of coronavirus patients in ICU units could be affected. Patients may experience paranoid hallucinations, agitation, and confusion leading to withdrawal. A woman broke during occupational therapy, according to Business Insider, distressed by her husband’s death from the disease. But her husband was fine and she called the hospital to see her every day.
Families also suffer after waiting for their loved one to recover again. And patients think, “I just had lung disease. Why am I crying? Why can’t I think clearly for more than five minutes?” said a doctor. “That is the unexpected part, and therefore particularly annoying.” Hospitals have begun to develop best practices to counter the effects on patients. Many realities of this disease increase the risk of delirium: social and physical isolation, intense sedatives, lack of sleep, even dealing with caregivers whose faces are covered by masks. Hospital staff can also do small things that can help ease the minds of patients, a doctor said, such as putting a photo of them on their gowns. “People are very creative in times of crisis,” he said. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
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