The Atlantic reported that COVID-19 patients have been experiencing a sort of living nightmare as they battle the virus in hospitals.
Hallucinations vary, from a feeling of falling in slow motion, to one patient felling that a nurse had taken a circular saw and cut her arm and both of her legs off. The saw then came through the wall and cut her head in half.
Patients suffering from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Many of these patients have to be put on a ventilator. 80% of patients on ventilators experience ICU Delirium. Patients are sedated in a medically induced coma to ease the memory of the difficulties. However patients reconstruct false memories from stimulus while sedated.
Patients might look like they are resting, while in reality their brain is on fire. A patient might then wake up in a medically induced haze with a tube down their throat and wrists tied. In war time, that would be considered torture. Patients might feel they are being kidnapped or being tortured. They might see blood dripping down the walls, or people might have animal heads. Children might float by with no faces. If a patient has to get an MRI they might feel they are being put in an oven.
COVID-19 is the perfect storm for Delirium. Patients are put on a high dose of drugs, a longer illness along with absence of family and mobility. Communities around the country and around the world are going to have to deal with a tsunami of survivors who have delirium. Even when patients recover and can rationalize that the things in their head could not have happened, the terror is still very real. The delirium can last even after a patient returns home. One in Four ARDS survivors had PTSD symptoms later in their recovery. Nightmares can get so bad that the recovering patient might wish they had died. Surviving and getting your life back are two different things.