My sister's father-in-law has had COPD for a couple of years. On constant oxygen at home etc. Was doing okay and managing short outings without a problem up to and including most of this last weekend. Obviously knew the long-term prognosis but the thinking was months (at least).
He went in to respiratory arrest on Sunday afternoon and was rushed to hospital. He's still in ICU. Initially docs thought it might be a stroke but it wasn't. CO2 out of control etc, etc. He was on a ventilator for 24 hours and they thought it was the end.
Amazingly, he rallied, came off the ventilator and was talking and quite positive. Went downhill again yesterday morning and is now on an oxygen mask (can't recall the name). Not full on ventilator, but he has "failed" several attempts to come off that.
He's lost lots of weight, is very confused and, my sister says, just seems to be tired and to have had enough.
We're assuming that there isn't long left and that he's unlikely to rally from this. His wife and daughter are distraught and don't want to ask any questions. His son (my sister's husband) feels caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of understanding what's going on and balancing encouraging his dad against telling him it's okay to go if he wants to.
Not sure what we're looking for really but any thoughts, advice or experiences would be appreciated.
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Life-limiting illness
Anyone got any COPD end of life experiences they're able to share?
4 replies
OvertiredandConfused · 23/01/2014 14:25
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