Hi all, I’m here again asking another question. So many from me these days! My 79-yr old father had a severe fall about 10 days ago. We don’t know how it happened. He was alone and doesn’t remember the incident. He hit his temple area and required stitches and also fractured a number of ribs. Before this he had been suffering from UTIs for about 8 months and had lost weight / become more frail. I had noticed general forgetfulness over the last few years but it didn’t seem like anything serious. Perhaps I should have taken it more seriously as his mother had Alzheimer’s. In any case he went to the hospital after the fall for about 8 days and recovered well physically. Mentally, it was another story. It was like he went into the hospital one person and came out another. He makes up stories about things, rambles on. He also started getting up from his bed in the middle of the night, wandering in the hospital. He is now in a rehab unit getting PT. The rehab unit is also for mental care patients. I’m trying to get him a neurological evaluation. I guess my question is, can a fall really trigger dementia in this way? Can it go from 0 to 60 that fast?
UTIs can cause severe and sudden behavioral changes in elders. So can imbalanced electrolytes.
You need to make sure that the rehab docs and PAs know that this is a change in mental staus for your dad. That always needs to he investigated. Remember that they didn't know him before.