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Five Days with Dementia

Recently I underwent major surgery in a Sydney hospital. We would all be aware that Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease is a very big problem at the present time. When I became fully conscious after my operation, I found myself in a four-bed ward with two Dementia patients; a third was to arrive at midnight. For their privacy I will call them Millie, Molly and Mandy.

Millie was from a European country and she alternated between the English and German languages. That first night and the next day, Millie seemed to accept where she was and at the same time she was unrestrained in her bed and spent her time dozing and watching the activities when nurses came to take temperatures, blood pressure and to administer tablets and injections.

Came the next day and Millie decided that this wasn't for her. From my observation, Millie had a mobility problem with her hip, so she had to stay in bed but this fact seemed to escape her. She spent the day and night getting out of bed whenever the nursing staff were not around and successfully made it to the chair by her bed one day, before the nurse discovered her. Millie had to be restrained for her own safety, so she was put into a jacket which was tied under the bed but allowed her freedom of movement in bed. It was easy to see her watching the door to make sure that there were no nurses about.

Millie spent the next few hours working away at getting one arm free from the jacket and once perfected, it wasn't long before both arms were free and freedom seemed certain for her. She even managed to get the jacket untied from under the bed. A friend or relative came to visit or was sent for and, he spent some time explaining to her in English and German, where she was and why she had to remain there for her safety.

This seemed to satisfy her for a couple of hours but that night, Millie started again to get out of bed. When the nurses tried to explain to her, she started to call out for her son and it was explained to her that it was 4.00am and her son was home in bed and not available. I found myself in the position of having to buzz for the nurse whenever Millie started to get out of bed and I heard her say "oh no" one day when she saw me reach for the buzzer.

Next to Millie was Molly, a dear old lady who hardly spoke even when asked a question. Her first visitor who I took, from appearances to be a daughter, turned out to be an older sister. This impressed on me how Dementia must have changed her appearance. Molly was due to go back to a nursing home just after I left that ward. Her sister told me that it was no use getting the TV working for her as she wouldn't be aware that it was there. So sad.

At midnight, I awoke to find that Mandy was being installed in the bed next to me. Mandy had broken her hip and was just out of the recovery ward. She was 84 and not impressed with all these strangers moving her around, so let out a bloodcurdling scream whenever anyone approached her bed. She cried and moaned before eventually going to sleep but next day and those that followed, were interspersed with screams and cries to "leave me alone please, I'm sorry". Mandy took two hours to eat each meal and complained loudly whenever the catering staff tried to take the now cold food from her. They needed the tray and plates for the next meal.

There are many men now employed in the hospitals; they are used for lifting patients, moving the backrests when meals are ready to be served and other non-nursing jobs, like moving patients to different areas for X-rays, etc. They were a friendly lot, always good for a joke and a treat to have around; their strength certainly relieves the nurses of moving heavier patients. A nice young man gave me a ride in my bed; in the lift, downstairs and along some corridors for my X-ray. Mandy shreiked whenever these men approached her. One said to her "I haven't even touched you, what's the problem?" Her reply was "But you might hurt me". Her apprehension was great.

On the evening of my third day in this ward at 10.30pm, I was asked if I would mind being moved further down the hall to a two-bed ward. They were very busy and wanted to put another into that ward, so off I went and was by myself until midnight again and then a very nice English lady joined me for the next few days. During those days, we could hear Mandy, three wards away, still shreiking and she was still there when I left to come home. I asked about the person who was put into my bed position in that ward and was told that she was different; she threw punches at the nurses. They had a very active ward that night and in the days ahead.

Why am I writing this? What is its relevance to family history?

If you have had reason to search the 1851, 61, 71, 81, 91 & 1901 censuses, no doubt you will have seen entries for people described as "idiot, imbecile, blind, dumb, etc". Perhaps there was one in your family so described. Could that poor soul have been in one of the stages of Dementia? or perhaps suffering from Postnatal Depression? The nurses and doctors of those times, would not have had the knowledge that we have today. The patient would have been put into a straight jacket and left to his or her own devices, probably force fed and, if they were not already insane, it wouldn't have taken long for them to become so. This really opened my mind to the problem of Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease and what a tragedy it must be to many families.