ER delirium; has anyone had experience with this?

Cbp, about 90% of elders will experience delirium when in the hospital.... 20% of much younger people will experience the same after having major surgery.

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.

YES. My mother never reached the point of dementia/ALZ where sundowning occurrs - but she did it in the hospital to the point of having to have a bed alarm. She was in the hospital for about a week, and after the first night, I started staying the nights with her, because she yanked her catheter out, pulled her IV out and waved it at me, tried to get of bed SO many times...which would have resulted in a fall because she was so weak. In the morning, she wouldn't remember a thing.

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.

Yep! That's how I found ageing care and came on here screaming. My Mama had a full meltdown. Confusion, kept trying to get out of bed with a broken pelvis and back. I'm sorry. It's just awful that they can turn so crazy.

Cbp, spending 28 hours in the ER probably with out food or water is enough to give anyone delirium.
Other wise I second what everyone else has said. hopefully MIL will recover to a more normal baseline.

Without knowing what took this elderly lady to the ER in the first place I'm not sure how we know that the cause of her symptoms must be "ER/hospital delirium" above whatever it was that ailed her before.

Yes.

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.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. She was in ER after a second fall in 24 hours, about 10 mins. after the second fall she became unresponsive, weak pulse,low BP. So back she went to ER. Now they are monitoring her heart to see if they can find a cause. Hopefully the delirium will improve.

Cpb, I am hoping your Mom does ok and is back home soon.

I wonder if your Mom was dehydrated? That could cause a person to lose their balance, fall, and possibly black out.

God help anyone who has to spend 28 hours in the ER. I would probably have delirium as well! Not sure if your elder has dementia but that adds a whole other level to the situation. I posted a rant a while back about the ER and my elderly dementia parents.. hell on earth for sure!

I'm sorry you had to go through that!