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child-like behavior after heart surgery
My father had bypass and valve replacement surgery on friday. They kept him sedated and on heart pump til wednesday, saying his blood pressure was too low and needed to make his heart stronger before allowing him to wake up.
He was allowed to wake up on Thursday and they took the ventilator out on Thursday afternoon.
On that Thursday and now Friday and Saturday, he is acting like a little child. he talks like a 3 year old, and doesn't remember alot of things from right before the surgery. Not sure yet if he remembers other things, that's just as far as we've gotten.
I am asking the hospital what is going on and they just say sometimes this happens from the medication sometimes. They have reduced the medication alot and yesterday he didnt have any for 12 hours or more.
The nurses and doctor are talking about moving him to a step down unit.
My mom doesnt know who this person even is. he repeats himself over and over and uses words like "doggie" and "poopie" etc. He is 64 and I have never ever heard him speak like this.
Also, he is a bit demanding of the nurses which i have never seen. For the past 20 years of bypass surgeries, stints, balloons, COPD, and liver problems, he has always been extremely respectful to the nursing staff, always telling them how great they are. He asks them the same questions over and over again.
He asks if he was bad, did he do something wrong, can he go home.
The hospital says hopefully it's the medication and he will return to normal over time.
I asked if he had a stroke and they said no.
Has anyone ever experienced this after surgery?
he was kept sedated for 5 days longer than planned and his oxygen levels have been low the whole time.
Please answer, my mother is so upset and i live 6 hours from them and just dont know what to do to help. i need to go back to work and can only come on the weekends. If he is going to need lots of care im going to need to move closer to them.
He was allowed to wake up on Thursday and they took the ventilator out on Thursday afternoon.
On that Thursday and now Friday and Saturday, he is acting like a little child. he talks like a 3 year old, and doesn't remember alot of things from right before the surgery. Not sure yet if he remembers other things, that's just as far as we've gotten.
I am asking the hospital what is going on and they just say sometimes this happens from the medication sometimes. They have reduced the medication alot and yesterday he didnt have any for 12 hours or more.
The nurses and doctor are talking about moving him to a step down unit.
My mom doesnt know who this person even is. he repeats himself over and over and uses words like "doggie" and "poopie" etc. He is 64 and I have never ever heard him speak like this.
Also, he is a bit demanding of the nurses which i have never seen. For the past 20 years of bypass surgeries, stints, balloons, COPD, and liver problems, he has always been extremely respectful to the nursing staff, always telling them how great they are. He asks them the same questions over and over again.
He asks if he was bad, did he do something wrong, can he go home.
The hospital says hopefully it's the medication and he will return to normal over time.
I asked if he had a stroke and they said no.
Has anyone ever experienced this after surgery?
he was kept sedated for 5 days longer than planned and his oxygen levels have been low the whole time.
Please answer, my mother is so upset and i live 6 hours from them and just dont know what to do to help. i need to go back to work and can only come on the weekends. If he is going to need lots of care im going to need to move closer to them.
Just to add, ON pump surgery seems to make this situation more common which is why they try to do off pump with bypass surgery. Obviously you can't do that with valve surgery but he was kept on pump for days rather than hours. So it will likely take him much longer to recover. It is also recognised that people should not be on pump for longer than necessary because they can cause damage, but it sounds like the staff are confident this isn't the case.
Memory and personality problems are more common than people are led to believe. The only thing which can be done is give it time. This will allow all the anaesthetic to be removed from body tissue, and allow any medication to stop having effect. Trauma sometimes affects the brain this way, especially from such heavy surgery, and the reason the brain reacts this way is not fully understood. Nearly all patients make a full recovery but it can take some time with a few patients. Some have taken a year. They say he hasn't suffered a stroke, but are they just judging this by the classic symptoms, such as paralysis or the face dropping etc? I assume they have done a CT scan of the head to be certain?
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