An Old Man in Hospital

In a bed in a neurosurgery ward of a public hospital lies an old man. He is not allowed to get up - his hands are tied to the bed frame.  Apparently the staff feels he may endanger himself.  He is wearing a diaper so he does not need to get up to relieve himself.   But he continuously demands to go to the toilet.  When the staff reminds him that he can just relief himself in his diaper he denies that he is wearing a diaper.  

At night he removes the diaper and relieves himself, spreading excrement and urine all over the bed, and himself.  The staff triy to clean him up and he struggles, complaining continuously.  The staff remain gentle with him, in words and in deed.  But they are firm that he cannot get up, presumably by doctor’s orders.  

He is feeding through a tube into his stomach.  But he pulls the tube out.  The staff have to insert the tube again.  He resists mightily, complaining loudly, crying that he is dying.  

His wife and daughter visit him, trying to calm him down.  Pleading with him that his antics is putting a lot of pressure on everybody around him.  He seems to calm down while they are there.  His old friend visits, telling him the same thing.  Apparently his has had a stroke and is partially incapacitated.  He may also have kind of deterioration in the brain.  He thinks his daughter (who just visited him) is in the US.  He tried to free himself while his friend was there, which his friend discouraged.  

After his friend left, the old man pulled on something and toppled a table, making a loud bang and a mess.  The staff rushed in, upset but not surprised.  

He seems confused. He does not seem to know where he is. Sometimes he talks about a 3-storey building, sometimes it is 6-storeys. It is not clear whether he means he owns it, or he wishes to jump off it.  Sometimes he talks in coherent sentences. Often he simply moans and mumbles.  

I do not wish to be in hte old man’s position.  Surely nobody wants to be in his position. Most likely he does not mean to cause trouble but cannot help himself.  Most likely he does not understand the consequences of what he is doing.  His wife still considers him her husband, his daughter - father, his friend - friend.  But how much?  How much of him is left?  Can he possibly recover?  How much can he recover?

If the man has a soul, where is his soul?  When a man loses his memory, when a man does not recognise his family and friends, what is left of him?   How much of his soul is left?  If a soul endures, where is it and what it is like?  There is so much that I wish to know.