In percentage terms, a large proportion of bedridden patients are elderly people. This is due to the fact that the aging body is most susceptible to various diseases, since the immune system is no longer able to fully cope with its task. Time itself also plays a big role - over the years, the human body simply wears out.
Elderly bedridden patients require special care, and to provide it, you need to know not only the basic rules of care, but also the reasons why an elderly person is bedridden.
Diseases that cause disability in older people
Most often, it is not age itself that leads to disability in older people, but concomitant chronic diseases, which become more and more severe over the years. Such diseases can occur in a person of mature age, and sometimes they appear in adolescence or even from birth. A strong young body is able to fight the problem without allowing it to manifest itself, but over the years the disease takes over and leads to serious consequences.
There are a number of diseases that are more likely to lead to disability in an elderly person:
- disruption of the circulatory system;
- malignant tumors;
- damage to the nervous system;
- damage to the musculoskeletal system;
- damage to the respiratory system.
Let's take a closer look at these factors.
Impact of comorbidities
How long do people live with dementia? When predicting how long a person with a similar nervous system disorder will live, it is worth paying attention to the origin of the diagnosis. Thus, about 5% of all cases of the disease are reversible.
When dementia is caused by a tumor or infection, after getting rid of it, life expectancy can increase significantly.
In addition, mental disorders are sometimes caused by a lack of folic acid or vitamin D. By taking these substances, the patient can get rid of the symptoms of a frightening disease.
After a stroke
After a stroke, 10-30% of patients begin to develop signs of dementia:
- problems with memory, speech, reading and counting,
- slow movement, sudden changes in direction while walking,
- instability of emotional state, depression.
The mortality rate after a stroke in patients with dementia is three times higher than in patients who simply had a stroke.
However, timely use of medications and prevention of recurrent strokes can extend the life of an elderly person with symptoms of this disorder to 5-10 years or more.
Bedridden patients
While ambulatory patients with “senile dementia” can harm themselves by forgetting to turn off the gas or getting lost on the street, bedridden patients are at lower risk and can live 10 and sometimes 15 years.
Competent care and willingness to quickly come to the aid of an old man will significantly improve the quality and duration of his existence.
To prolong the life of a bedridden patient with dementia, it is very important to properly maintain personal hygiene: wash your hands, body, brush your teeth, genitals after going to the toilet, etc.
In order to pay sufficient attention to an elderly person, his relatives often use the services of a nurse with a special education. In addition, there are boarding houses that are ready to accept people with this diagnosis.
Find out more about dementia:
- its congenital and acquired varieties;
- symptoms in older people, manifestations in men and women, causes of development in children and adolescents;
- special tests to detect dementia, treatment methods in old age;
- do they give disability for dementia and how to apply for it;
- how to behave with sick people, his family and friends.
For Alzheimer's disease
In 70% of recorded cases, Alzheimer's disease leads to the development of senile dementia. As the disease progresses, it manifests itself as a decrease in the number of interests, slower thinking and motor reactions, increased irritability, and passivity.
Over time, hallucinations and paranoid ideas are added. In some cases, epileptic seizures occur.
Unfortunately, irreversible changes in the brain are accompanied by a persistent decline in previously acquired skills of independent existence.
The life expectancy for Alzheimer's disease complicated by dementia is 5-7 years. In severe forms (pronounced apathy, loss of speech skills, difficulties with movement), patients can live 1-3 years.
How long do people live with Alzheimer's disease? Find out from the video:
Vascular form of dementia
The occurrence of vascular dementia in old age can occur against the background of circulatory disorders (atherosclerosis, arrhythmia, pathology of the heart valves, hypertension, etc.).
Brain cells that lack nutrients and oxygen die off. Patients are subject to constant depression and absent-mindedness, increased fatigue, irritability, and sleep disturbances.
The life expectancy forecast for severe vascular dementia is on average 4-5 years, for a mild stage and slow development - from 10 to 15 years.
In approximately 15% of cases, complete recovery is possible.
Death is most often caused by a heart attack or stroke, so to prolong life it is worth paying more attention to the prevention of these ailments.
In people at a young age
Unfortunately, not only old people, but also young people at an early age - 28-40 years old - face a disease such as dementia. A mental disorder can develop due to an unhealthy lifestyle.
Modern youth are often susceptible to destructive behavior, which includes various bad habits and addictions. As a result of smoking, gambling, alcohol or drug use, brain activity slows down.
If the first symptoms of the disease are detected, there is a chance to prevent the progression of dementia and completely cure the patient. However, most often it is only possible to slow down severe mental changes and prolong the years lived by constantly taking medications.
The average lifespan with moderate development of mental decline and the use of symptomatic therapy will be 10-20, in some cases 25 years.
In severe cases, as well as with a genetic predisposition, the disease develops more rapidly and can lead to death in just 5-8 years.
Circulatory system
Diseases of the circulatory system are not in vain in the first place. It is in old age that significant changes in blood vessels begin to occur in the human body. Such changes only lead to a worsening of the situation: the tissues of the vessel walls become thinner, losing their integral structure and elasticity; in addition, seals appear inside the vessel, interfering with blood circulation. This increases the risk of blood clots.
The affected vessel can no longer fully narrow or expand. All this leads to an increase in arterial pressure and a decrease in venous pressure.
At this age, the cardiac output also decreases. In this regard, restructuring begins within the circulatory system, since other systems lack the amount of nutrients delivered by the blood. This causes the body to spend more energy on the heart.
The heart muscle itself also ages: muscle tissue atrophies and weakens, myocardial sclerosis progresses.
Malignant formations
Also a common cause of disability. Malignant tumors may differ in men and women.
In men, most often it is a prostate tumor (more than 30%), lung damage (about 14%), malignant tumors in the rectum (10%), melanoma (about 5%).
In women, the most vulnerable place is the mammary gland (more than 30%), further percentages differ slightly from men.
One way or another, the most dangerous malignant tumors, leading to disability or death, are located in the lungs.
Nervous system
As years pass and old age approaches, not all people remain sane. General atrophy of the body affects the nervous system, and then the consequences can be very serious. Atrophy of the nervous system leads to dementia, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.
The most common occurrence is memory loss, which can lead to complete loss. At the same time, the elderly person loses the ability to perform the most basic automated actions (the person forgets how to dress, brush his teeth, wash his face and eat). This always leads to the patient becoming bedridden.
Other patients may lose intelligible speech and the ability to read and write. In the thermal stage, insanity manifests itself: mental attacks, convulsions, uncontrollable laughter or crying, hysteria, severe panic attacks.
How to provide the necessary care for bedridden patients
If there is an immobilized person in the house, caring relatives have to experience and hide negative emotions. The patients themselves, from forced immobility, become depressed, aggressive, and refuse food and procedures. Relatives should psychologically prepare for such behavior and not show their irritation, so as not to make the victim feel useless.
Patients who are not used to complaining sometimes stop moaning, not wanting to show their anxiety - even their pulse and breathing may remain normal. And then it is difficult for caregivers to find out that a loved one has pain in any organ. However, it has been noticed that people calmly talk about their complaints to medical staff and become attached to strangers.
Nurses at the Tula Grandfather boarding house talk with immobilized patients, trying to build trust in the person and not let him feel abandoned. Thanks to restraint and medical ethics, the staff reacts in a friendly manner to the whims of a person in trouble and in need of care. And nurses will massage any part of the body, apply a compress, or call a doctor if you need to prescribe a painkiller.
Another stumbling block is the unprofessional actions of caregivers. Careless handling, inability to cope with hygienic care or ignorance of the needs of the victim aggravate the psychological state of both parties. It is difficult to master all the intricacies of caring for a bedridden patient in a short time, especially if you have to work at the same time.
Full rehabilitation at home without the participation of medical staff is also difficult, and patients understand this. And private services of doctors, nurses, caregivers and necessary tests at home cost almost 2 times more than in modern specialized institutions.
At the Tula Grandfather boarding house, a team of doctors of different profiles works with bedridden patients, patients are under control 24 hours, they are provided with regular meals and organized leisure time. All conditions for the treatment and comfortable stay of bedridden patients have been created here. For completely immobile patients, nurses regularly turn them over, clean them, feed them, help them perform their natural needs, and if necessary, nurses place catheters. The staff takes partially immobilized elderly people for walks in comfortable wheelchairs. By entrusting the Tula Grandfather boarding house with the care of a bedridden patient, you can be sure that the treatment is carried out under the supervision of sensitive and experienced specialists.
Musculoskeletal system
Diseases of this system often leave the patient bedridden, but at the same time he remains lucid, limited only in physical activities.
Atrophy of muscle tissue, damage to joints and tendons can cause severe discomfort in everyday life, and can lead to a complete loss of control over movement of body parts.
The most severe disease is coxarthrosis, which occurs in the hip joint. A person with this disease is likely to lose the ability to move.
Also, tissue damage can occur in the knee joints, spine, hands and other joints throughout the body.
Who has it more difficult?
It is difficult for people with diseases of the nervous system to recover after prolonged lying down. In such patients, the time for rehabilitation increases by 4–5 times. They get back on their feet after a fracture not in a month, but in five. It is important for them to restore motor functions while still in a hospital bed. Even a short but frequent stay in bed can lead patients with nervous system diseases to premature disability.
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