It depends on the extent of the illness, the individual person and where they are in their AD. A simple cold treated at home may not affect them but a more serious illness, especially involving hospitalization can. If they are early in dementia, surgery may increase the dementia for awhile but they may improve once they are back in their usual environment, where later on in their dementia it may cause a rapid decline. My personal opinion is that you have to weigh the options. Many times you don’t have an option. They need hospitalization now! Other times you do have an option. Having a knee replacement may make them more comfortable but is it worth it if it makes the dementia worse? We opted out of an implantable defibrillator for my husband knowing that the trauma of surgery would probably make the dementia worse and that a sudden cardiac arrest would be a kinder death than what he is experiencing now. I am lucky that I have “hospital at home” available. They stay home and a nurse practitioner comes once or twice a day to see them. It’s wonderful for some things - example if they need IV antibiotics or other IV meds, IV fluid replacement, advanced wound care.

I don’t know about others but illness definitely played a roll in my husbands rapid decline. That and the many trips/stays to the hospital and hospice.

My husband recently had Covid and was in the hospital. His dementia has increased.

Hello, just reading these messages and they say that you can call it Hospital decline ,Surgery, urin affections,can cause decline also, , Lost my husband last year October 22, 2022, to make it a short story, he was in hospital for three weeks They did sedate him and took a few days to get him out of it, he had declined fast that past year really fast, prior to the hospital. , (they say we needed to find a memory care for him,)finally found one , three weeks later passed away. His balance was getting worse he had two bad falls at home in the bathroom at our place , in memory care had he wanted to walk without walker , fell twice, last fall they found him on floor in front of his bathroom door He was a big guy, 6ft 1 , 300 pounds,I’m 5 ft 140 pounds I had to have help the two times he fell at our home😔, He passed away the following morning. Prayers that God holds your hand daily through this journey. blessings Debbie

Thank you, I will remember to do that.