Illness that’s as lethal as heart attack but often missed
- A quarter of older people in hospital suffer from delirium, a debilitating and dangerous illness that strikes suddenly but is often not diagnosed
- Today is the inaugural World Delirium Day, an awareness-raising initiative of the Australasian, European and American delirium societies
Almost everyone has a delirium story, although they don’t always know it’s called that. Most will recall the experience of a grandmother, a father, a child, a friend who became very confused in hospital, and in some cases died or was never the same again.
Health professionals tell of the distressing experiences of patients or their own family members. Some people recall their own experience of delirium during illness or injury, and for the first time have a name and explanation for what happened to them.
“To say our dad became unrecognisable is a gross understatement. Emergency hip surgery gave way to a delirium that enveloped our father in agony, the likes of which we never knew could exist in the world of medicine,” says the daughter of Mr B.
“We stood at his bedside and watched helplessly as he moved from surgical anesthesia onto pain medication and then into a hyper-agitated delirium that nearly killed him. For more than a week, he was unable to rest, sleep, be soothed, reasoned with or communicated with – all while we were given no explanation or diagnosis of what was happening to him.”
A quarter of older people in hospital suffer from delirium, an illness with the same death rate as a heart attack. Despite being both common and serious, delirium is often neither recognised nor treated by health professionals in hospitals, residential aged care facilities and the community.
Today is the inaugural World Delirium Day, an initiative of iDelirium [opens external link], a newly formed federation of the Australasian, European and American delirium societies. The aim is to promote global action to increase community awareness about delirium and inspire better prevention, detection and care for affected people.
Read the full article on the UTS Newsroom
Byline: Dr Annmarie Hosie, Dr Meera Agar, Dr Gideon Caplan, Dr Jane Phillips
