End of Life Issues
Related: About this forumHas anyone experienced Hospital Deliria?
A couple months ago, I was taken to the hospital with sepsis and my kidneys were failing. I went into a state they called Hospital Deliria which consisted of dreams. This lasted for five days and nights.
One of the longest dreams consisted of standing in an automotive equipment workroom/garage with others waiting for their bodies to be harvested. I had been watching for the police or my children to come rescue me, as they had surely put out a missing person call. The evening came and it was snowing. I was standing near windows so I was able to watch the traffic, hoping that one of the vehicles would be my rescuers, but that wasn't to be.
The other people were standing in coats, but I was dressed in a hospital gown. Although I tried to communicate with the others, no one spoke. They simply looked straight ahead and didn't move at all. I was situated in front of a large pit, which I assumed was a place I would fall into when it was time. I could see men in white coats and hats moving from a backroom to an order desk where women were taking calls and stacking tins of meat. It finally dawned on me that they were selling meat from our bodies. They packed the meat in black tins with either a white whale or a white bird of some kind on the lid.
I was not able to step into the pit, I hovered at the edge. At one point, I was wrapped in a large sheet of heavy duty bubblewrap. The only thing that did was keep some of the cold out. I never did fall into the pit and my body was never harvested. It finally dawned on me that "they" were more interested in harvesting my blood and they moved me from one place to another to do so.
I did document my dreams when I was once again alert. It was determined that I was getting too much pain medication and that threw me into the deliria. My other dreams were mainly me fighting them. The hospital had hired "watchers" who sat in my room and made sure I didn't harm myself or get out of bed.
The strange thing was that after I was released from the hospital to a nursing home, my daughter was talking with a friend at church. The friend asked how I was doing and while talking, told my daughter about this strange thing that had happened with her mother. She was taken to the hospital and had these crazy dreams about people harvesting her body. My daughter nearly fainted. What are the chances?
You can look up Hospital Deliria and find posts about others experiencing the same. Eerie!
still_one
(96,325 posts)condition you are describing, and it was helped along with the pain medication she was given. Her deliria placed her in the kitchen where she was putting baked potatoes in the oven, and cooking other such things.
My mother didn't remember a thing from it, but my brother and I were witnesses, so I know what you are talking about
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)they were going to demonstrate using their porcelain by serving me and my family a Thanksgiving dinner, to trying to figure out how to escape one location with only a hospital gown and socks on. I'd have to suffer horrible pain in my feet as I ran across a huge, graveled parking lot to the highway. Would cars stop to pick up an old woman? It was an icy winter.
Throughout it all, I heard the kids in the hall and wondered why they never came in to visit. Of course, they were there most of the time.
still_one
(96,325 posts)no_hypocrisy
(48,628 posts)This was the last dream she had in the hospital before she died. She found it comforting.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)I asked who everyone was and he said, "Just everyone!" in total amazement.
My father wanted me to take him back home. When I told him I couldn't do that, he said, "Yes you can. Just grab the bus." so we grabbed the bus, he went through the house and then we went back to the hospital. He died shortly after.
Neither were on drugs of any kind.
mopinko
(71,652 posts)this was a long time ago, early 80's. it was a big deal, and a big surgery, fixing damage from an undetected heart attack. she came out of the anesthesia fine, but the next morning she was out of it.
she was talking about hanging vines, and traveling vine to vine to get around.
she was clearly in her own world, talking to people but not really connecting to them, or looking them in the eye.
the nurses said it was a combo of left over anesthesia and low blood oxygen. they turned up her O2, and she was fine pretty quickly.
damn were we afraid that her body made it through the surgery, but her mind didnt.
she lived 20 more years after that.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)but my granddaughter said that the ICU dr. asked if she knew of anything that would get a rise out of me. She suggested politics or Joe Biden. At that point, I opened my eyes and smiled. He was amazed.