Hospital Delirium

Momofbbcc

 

My Dad, who is 78 years old, finished a regimen of IV chemo about a month ago.  He was getting the chemo every other week since December 2014.  His oncologist put him on a 6-week break.  Unfortunately, he fell and broke his left arm about 10 days ago and is still in the hospital.  The broken arm is bad, but other medical issues he has going on now from the fall are even worse.  We are struggling for answers.  He has developed something called hospital delirium, so he can go from being confused, to agitated, to delusional.  His medical team is trying to figure out the cause of him getting this condition. He was given a lot of morphine when he arrived at the hospital, the fall was surely very traumatic for him, the EMS experience was difficult, having his wedding ring pulled off his very swollen finger was horrific.  

The psychiatric team put him on an anti-psychotic medication to help with his delusions, agitation, etc.  It was not helping, so our family asked for it to be changed.  He has now been on Zyprexa for the past 2 days, and again it does not seem to be helping all that much.  He is calmer, but he is not sleeping or eating that much.  He is also incontinent right now.  His heart rate is up it is averaging about 116.  He has gone into atrial fibrillation about 3 times since being admitted.  He also has not been out of bed much since this happened.  Physical Therapy have been in 2-3 times and have been able to get him to stand up, but with 2-3 therapists assisting him.

My family & I just don't know what to do.  If anyone has had any experience with this condition or anti-psychotic medications and can help we would be greatly appreciative.  We are thinking we might hold off on his Zyprexa tonight. 

Thanks for any help you can give.