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    When ICU Delirium Leads To Symptoms Of Dementia After Discharge

    Up to half of all patients who survive emergency medical treatment in the intensive care unit have mental problems when they return home. Doctors studying the problem say it starts with delirium.
    by Richard Harris Oct 10, 2018 5 minutes
    Richard Langford, at home in East Nashville, Tenn., still has significant trouble with mental focus and memory issues 10 years after a sudden and serious infection landed him in the hospital ICU for several weeks.

    Doctors have gradually come to realize that people who survive a serious brush with death in the intensive care unit are likely to develop potentially serious problems with their memory and thinking processes.

    This dementia, a side-effect of intensive medical care, can be permanent. And it affects as many as half of all people who are rushed to the ICU after a medical emergency. Considering that 5.7 million Americans end up in intensive care every year, this is a major problem which, until recently, has been poorly appreciated by medical caregivers.

    Take, for example, the story of Richard Langford, a 63-year-old retired minister who lives with his mother in East Nashville. He went into the hospital for knee surgery 10 years ago, "because I was playing tennis with an 85-year-old and he beat

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