Presbycusis and Dementia

A couple of nights ago, they brought in a 92 year old man from a nearby geriatric psych unit. He had fallen and sustained a 2cm laceration on his face. The poor old guy was deaf as a door nail, and presumably quite demented since he was an inpatient at the psych ward for those whose true age lies only in carbon dating technology.

As I worked on the guy, I explained what I was doing (by yelling so he could hear me). I was kinda bored, so I started asking him about World War II (Dr. X will recall that this was the war in which our respective "motherlands" kicked Nazi ass). The old guy told me in very lucid details about his experiences as an infantry soldier across the Pacific theater ultimately being stationed in Japan as a Military Policeman (MP) after the war. He then told me all about how he used his GI bill to obtain his educational degrees and then worked for years in education and educational administration.

As we talked and yelled back and forth at each other, I was struck by how seemingly normal this old dad was.

I finished my suturing, and he asked me if there would be a scar, I assured him that his wound would not scar (I'm just that good). "So, my face looks normal now?" he asked. I explained that he had 6 small sutures above his eyebrow, as well as some swelling from the fall and the injected Lidocaine, but once it was healed in about a week, it should look normal.

"Boy are my Mom and Dad gonna be surprised!" he exclaimed.

As I left the room laughing, I whispered to my nurse "yeah, they're going to be very surprised. In fact I'll bet the first thing they say is 'Hey, what the fuck are we doing still alive'!!!"

For all reasons to love EM, the stories are by far the best reason.