When she had a terrible UTI, she was in rehab and for the first several weeks, thought she was in rehab at her church! And later on, even after she got out of rehab, said something about how she had been at the church for rehab, and we had to remind her she was never at the church. But she's fine, now.

It's so scary and so awful, seeing a loved one go completely out of their heads, especially when they were fully functioning before. The good news is that it really does almost always resolve itself when the person is back in the familiar environment.

Personally, I think it has a lot to do with how an elderly person's brain chemistry works, and that anesthesia and related issues really screw up their brain chemistry. I don't know that there's any medical basis for this; that's just a personal opinion I have.

Good luck and hope your dad improves very soon.

Now I understand he has developed hospital psychosis. I will share this with his physicians tomorrow.

What I found to be a pattern with this psychosis is that it does not start right after surgery - this was the most bewildering thing for me: how come he was so OK, moving his leg, talking about how great a job the surgeons do these days and the first night four nurses could not hold him in bed?

The next days were the most horrible experience for me. My Dad adores me, I am the light of his eyes and has always been. On the third evening, he became fully psychotic and for thirteen hours (during the night) kept talking about how "they" want to kill him, meaning the nurses and the doctors, forgetting where he was, telling me I should be ashamed of myself for not helping him, calling my mum names and at times crying "Help! Help!" when nurses had to give him his medicines.

The burden on the family is enormous! Mainly by not knowing what is happening and why he is deteriorating after being well. I am a medical doctor and was thinking all the time the way they teach us in medical school. Definitely during my time, there was no such condition as hospital psychosis. It is so good now there is an understanding about it in the medical community.

The problem with my dad now is that, due to his mental condition, he is very weak and feels poor and going home is still impossible. But at least now I have a plan in time and some positive expectation about the outcome of this condition.

After the fifth day in the hospital, she woke up not knowing where she was, who I was, thinking my dad was in the room (he passed away two years earlier) not knowing her birthdate or the year, and seeing imaginary people. They told us it was hospital induced psychosis. They were discharging her immediately, and after being in her home surroundings she would recover completely.

After about four hours at home, she was back to normal, not really remembering the experience at all! I'm so happy we took her home. Had she remained in any longer, I think the delirium would have continued. This was a very frightening experience for us. So glad they recognized what was happening and discharged her back to familiar surroundings.

Well, first they could not do the surgery because his kidneys were not functioning well enough. Then after 8 days in the hospital they decided to do the surgery once his kidneys had improved. The surgery went well but an hour after the surgery he went into congestive heart failure. He was on a ventilator for five days.

Once off the ventilator he has not been the same. He is having severe hallucinations and this has been six days off the ventilator. He is seeing space aliens, bugs everywhere and all kinds of other things. We are going on three weeks of this and he is still in the hospital. I wonder if coming home will help but I am also scared to bring him home. Anyone have any suggestions?

When I got back, thirty minutes later, the nightmare began. She acted as if she didn't know what I was talking about when I gave her the food. It escalated into a full fledged psychotic episode. She hated me and cursed me so badly, I couldn't stay in the room with her. I hired a private nurse who only made it through one night. I would hunker outside her room at night so she wouldn't see me, but I stayed in the hospital because she was so critical and because of rheumatoid arthritis could not walk or even buzz for a nurse. It never resolved.

The surgeon was horrible to us--he was young and apparently had never seen anything like this. He called in psychiatrists--they figured we must have had a terrible relationship and she was just acting like herself. The nurses were afraid to administer her medicine so they would just give it to me to give to her. Roommates were taken out of her room. She was in severe pain so she was screaming a lot. The hospital was in a city of 100,000 and catholic but you would have never known it by how they treated us. The doctor finally said he was washing his hands of us and getting her out of their hair.

When we took her home, she got physically so bad we immediately took her to the tiny hospital in our area. They were not surprised and said that in the elderly, this was not uncommon. It must have been uncommon at St. Mary's in Indiana because I will never forget the hell we went through--the shock of someone you love more than anything screaming and telling you to get out and calling you vile names. Then the hospital staff looking at you like you were criminals.

I am glad this phenomenon finally has a name and doctors are taking it seriously. In the end she was hospitalized, nursing home, and rehab for nearly three months before she could come home. While in the nursing home and rehab, she never spoke a word and would not eat. Finally, when they put her on elavil, she did start eating. Only after she was home, did she start improving. Guess they don't teach that stuff in medical school.

By the seventh day she was slurring words, couldn't finish a sentence and looked at a fork as if she had never seen one before. I thought she had a nervous breakdown but the doctor assured me it was hospital psychosis, and that she would get better once she got home. She has been home for 24 hours and seems to be getting a bit better but has a long way to go. Wish me luck!

I have begun to believe he has had a stroke. He is now in a long term acute care hospital with no end in sight to this hospital stay. Will he just keep getting worse? Some docs have referred to ICU psychosis or hospital psychosis but none has tried to explain it to us at all - we are all worried about him and whether he will ever go back to being himself again.

He has a fragile perception of himself and his surroundings anyway, and now he surely does not need this to further increase his anxiety levels. Sounds like we need to address this issue with him up front and see if he agrees with us as to what is going on. He is a very intelligent man, well read and highly educated. Very out of character for him.

That very night, i got a call saying my father is calling for help. When i went to visit him he shouted on me and said "why have you come here? i don't want you here." he called for his sister and when my aunt came he said that one of the male nurses wanted to marry his daughter (me) and she rejected the boy therefore now he is trying to kill him (my father).

his heart rate increased and he made up his mind not to see me in the hospital. As a daughter, I'm very upset, but as a research scholar, I'm well aware of the icu psychosis, but I'm not able to digest the unusual behavior where my father thinks i have been hiding all these things from him. I hope he will recover soon. i hope this experience helps other not to worry and accept as it's just a temporary phase.

My Dad has always been in excellent health. He still skis and went skiing twice last week. Then on Monday started having chest pains. I will say as an encouragement to all of us, that my Dad is a creature of habit. He's always liked his "routines." He's been that way his whole life, so it makes sense that this could be throwing him off. He has not had any pain medication for over 24 hours and still things have gotten worse. According to the info here, we just need to get him home.

Thanks for sharing everyone. I feel better!

-VeeVee in Flagstaff

P.S. Our doctor did warn us, but I brushed the warning off pretty quickly. (We were receiving so much info surgery anyway. It was a little overwhelming.) I'm also thankful that he (the surgeon) also told us that this is called hospital psychosis so that I could google the name and find you guys.

I don't think it necessarily happens to every older person. Some, I believe, are more prone to it than others, and it doesn't happen every time they are hospitalized. My mother, who has had it numerous times, had a mild stroke in August, was in the hospital a week, and was fine the whole time. It all just depends.

Conditions like a UTI or kidney infection, or any time they get anesthesia, seem to predispose them to it happening.

In any case, I'm glad your dad is better.

Fortunately, this was on a Wed., we brought him home Friday, and today, Saturday, he is completely back to normal mentally. He had not gotten enough sleep in the hospital, and the stress of surgery/anesthesia seemed to trigger the HP. The great news is that he returned to his old ways within 24 hours home.

He is normally a very kind, funny man and now he goes from mean and angry to childlike and pleading for help. He's restrained in the bed and they have him on Haldol. It's not working. I read that getting out of ICU and home is the best solution. But that won't happen until he becomes lucid and able to get out of bed. It's a nightmare with no end.

Reading others' experience with it has been helpful, though. It's nice to not feel so alone.

When I got to the hospital, he had bitten his tongue and was bleeding. He was also tied down. He had no idea who I was and spoke of things that made no sense. When he returned home, he got back to his old normal self. Now that he's back in, the disorientation has returned. He is so confused, talking about visitors who haven't been to see him, thinking he is on vacation or at a hotel, thinking he is in Macy's or Sears. He has also been agitated and combative. Several times he has tried to pull out his urine catheter. He wants to use the bathroom and cant understand that his urine comes out through the catheter. The doctors and nurses have described his delirium as "hospitalitis" which is same as HP. We are told it will go away when he returns home.

I pray it will since this man in the hospital is not the dad I know. I feel terrible for him as he does have lucid moments when he knows he's been acting abnormally. This is the most frightening experience for our family. Now I know from all these other posts that we are not alone. Thank you.

During his rehab stay, he was given many psych meds such as Xanax, Ativan, Seroquel, Dilantin, Depakote, and was issued a standing order for Haldol in case he tried to hit someone.

He did exhibit the psychotic symptoms of agitation, anger, and repeatedly and loudly expressed a desire to go home. I believe the meds interacted badly, and taken together with the nature of his injury and the sometimes callous treatment he received, he was labeled "difficult".

Four days after discharge, resting at home, he was normal. No meds. No violence, anger, swearing. He still has left side weakness from the injury, but no sundowning, no irrational ideas. The hospital stay was deeply traumatizing for him, and as I've seen in many posts, doctors and health care professionals do not want to address this.

They do not want to "give up" their meds.

My mother had a severe kidney infection and was in the hospital for a week, then had five weeks in rehab. She was completely out of her mind the whole time she was in the hospital and for part of the time she was in rehab. However, she is back at home now and doing well. The confusion has cleared up completely.

Your husband's memory of this time will probably be spotty, but there's a good chance he will recover all his faculties once the kidney infection clears up and he gets home and back in his familiar environment.

I understand what you're going through. You and your husband are in my prayers.

Prior to going in, although disabled he could cope well with things. I come home in tears every evening.

She was admitted on a thursday and on the sunday following was transferred into the Cardiac Care Unit. In less than 24 hours she was pulling out her IVs and catheters trying to leave saying her mom was home alone and has alzheimer's.

I in fact was taking care of my Grandmother who, at 93, is in much better shape that my mom. Anyway, the following day mom thought she was in Tokyo for a wedding. She's never been there, knows no one there, no idea where that came from.

The nurse asked if she had a drinking problem, I told her she has reportedly been sober since April 2009, but she stated they started her on the detox cocktail on monday and on Wednesday she was much more lucid. I was then told it looks like she had been drinking or the meds wouldn't have worked.

I don't know if this HP or not but it is very scary for all involved and unfortunately it looks like she will have to be readmitted for her physical health issues again.

This time I will request a drug to keep her calm yet lucid.

She was a high functioning person going to community college and independent in most activities. In 2003, two hours after her second surgery, she became psychotic, and regressed to a nervous breakdown. She is now back to daily function, but at 50 percent of her previous level.

She cannot read, write or concentrate at her previous level, which had been a third or fourth grade level at best, but now not even close. She played piano for five years and sang in a choir at high school, but now she hears voices, and had horrible, violent mood swings for years.

She finally has her emotions under better control, but suffers paranoid schizophrenia. My wife, friends, and i did all the research, but her eye surgeon, neurologist, three psychiatrists and psychologist had no clue what happened.

In 2003, 2004, and 2007 she was hospitalized in a neuropsych unit, and they had no clue what was going on. She is now 26, and still suffering. Our biggest mistake was not bringing her right back to the same hospital where she had the surgery.

Instead we brought her to a psych unit closer to our home. If anyone has any similar experiences, i will be monitoring this site.

I am so grateful to see that others have had this experience and that she will be back to her normal self. Why can't staff be more forthcoming and help families deal with this issue?

Now here we are in mid February and she has hospital psychosis. Calling out names of unknown people, yelling "help me!" over exaggerating pain when touched, thinking the hospital staff is trying to kill her, etc.

I have noticed that she is a little better when home, however, we haven't had the chance to keep her home more than five days straight. I can't believe how badly long hospital stays have affected her mentally.

She was a very sweet, soft talking lady who is now totally incoherent as far as making any sense when she talks. She is from time to time, usually after 5 p.m., combative, vulgar and very agitated. She is due to be released within a week but I don't know what to do.

I have rented an assisted living unit in the same facility at $4000-plus a month but no one has lived in it as since the last infection (now MRSA) she is worse. She is able to stand and take one or two steps. Before she was on her own sometimes for two or three weeks with a walker or cane.

The mental and downhill slide in such a short time is such an emotional thing to go through. She has seven living children and a lot of attention but nothing seems to work.

I told them no antipsychotic drugs but after she bit a staff member and spit food in my face I gave in. It hasn't helped but seems to be lingering on for longer periods of time.

It is very, very difficult to carry on a conversation with her. I'm at my wit's end as to what to do with her now.

Yesterday he told us that diggers had come into the ward and tore all the walls down and removed all the beds, but that he hid in the corner and they missed him. He also said that the nurses were saying that things had to be done for Christmas and he asked, "What's Christmas?"

We would love to bring him home, but he has managed to fall and break his hip whilst in hospital so we have to wait for that to mend first. This article and everyone else's experience is very reassuring. I will show my mum.

I tried to bring her back to reality and mentioned that the drugs are giving her vivid dreams and sometimes, it is hard to get a grasp on where you are. She told me, in her lucid moments, that it's called "Hospital psychosis" and she has frightened her children with some of her statements.

She is really struggling with this and I don't know if she'll be getting out of the long term care facility any time soon. She is an incredibly intelligent writer and avid reader but now she is desperately holding on to her sanity.

Thank you all for the acknowledgement and for talking about this awful condition.

He is seeing things: "Is that a mouse in the corner?" and it is the most devastating experience I have had in my life. The doctors and nurses do not talk about it and don't have any solutions.

I had to explain this psychosis to one of the doctors, but she didn't understand. The therapist didn't know about it.

It is totally crazy that this goes on and there is no discussion about it at all!

When my father came home from the hospital the last time, poof! It was all gone.

Good luck to you all and I know what you are going through.

Good luck and I hope your husband gets better very soon.

My mum has been in hospital now for over seven weeks. she origionally went in for an operation to remove a colon tumour. this was a success, but the night before she was due to be discharged, she got an infection at the site of her internal wound, causing six more trips to the O/R ,and numerous procedures, anesthesia, drugs etc..

this has i believe led to an episode of H/P...where my mother would pick at imaginary objects...see people and things that weren't there ,and in general behave nothing like her usual self...

I know she too has been frightened it meant she has the start of alzheimers (my nan..her mum had this)....the doctors, as well as her family (us) ,have reassured her that this is not the case....even testing her for such conditions..

having read your posts, i feel a lot calmer and reassured myself, that this should subside....the doctors have offered her anti depressants to help with the dreams and frightening symptoms...they have reassured her she will return to her usual sprightly self...

I`m so grateful to have the oportunity to read of others' experiences...it does leave you feeling helpless and worried... many thanks...sharon...

"You mean ICU Psychosis", was his all too quick reply. Garbage in, Garbage out.

I had been given a dose of anesthesia that kept me in ICU for three days. Seven weeks later I can close my eyes and slip back into that horror.