Monday, January 18, 2010

An interesting case

I have a patient who presented to hospital after falling down stairs and fracturing his lumbar spine. He has a complex social situation, multiple partners and 10 children. His x-partner has now become involved with the patient now that he is in hospital.
This patient has known dementia, and meeting him reviled that he is an interesting case. I found no known OT input recently so i decided to do the HDS with him as he was disorientated,confused and the physio had mentioned that he had difficulty following instructions.
The HDS reveled that he had a severe memory impairment, likely due to lack of concentration/attention. He often had behavioral outbursts when he had difficulty with questions and was very distractible. Some other aspects of the HDS were affected by his lack of concentration and behavioral responses to difficult tasks.
For this very reason i wish to observe him functioning to determine the impact of his cognitive impairments on his ability to live at home. Certainly needs more investigation, and i need a talk over with a senior