This patient has advanced alzheimers and was unable to eat or drink anything anymore. He was given about six months to live last November, until the family decided to have a G tube inserted. He still knows the names of his children, but is very confused the rest of the time. He sleeps all the time. Tody he contracted aspiration pneomnia.
2007-03-04 17:30:53 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Infectious Diseases
In this case, not long. G-tube will only support nutrition, it cannot stop pneumonia, especially if it is viral pneumonia. You say he has aspiration type but no one really knows unless they tested for this, it is only an educated guess. A person can aspirate his or her own spit so g-tube is not a cure all for that. If a person with a g-tube has gerd, they could aspirate what was just fed to them through the tube.
Pneumonia has been called the old man's friend, this is a way out for a man that wants to keep some sort of dignity.
I believe his time is soon and that he is lucky.
2007-03-04 17:50:40 · answer #1 · answered by Valerie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A G-Tube does not actually prolong life. The patient is unable to eat, so what they are doing is actually feeding him through the G-Tube. The tube is surgically inserted into the stomach through the abdomen. The Tube is then checked to make sure that the tube is in place, once this is confirmed then you can feed the person through the tube. This can be done in a couple of ways, continuous or intermediate. Continuous is usually done over 24 hours, the feeding is slow infused via a pump through tubing and the G-tube to the stomach. Intermediate is done usually at regular times each day. The practice is to do residules at regular times on continuous feeds and before starting the intermediate feeds. These residules provide information on the amount of liquid feed in the stomach. If the residule is high then aspiration pneumonia is possible. The other thing that leads to this problem is the patient is lying flat during the feed. The head needs to be elevated at 30 degrees.
Aspiration pneumonia is the feed has back flowed up the esophagus and has gotten into the lungs.
2007-03-04 17:46:08 · answer #2 · answered by Gary S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My Grandmother had Alzheimer's and it was such a sad thing to watch her deteriorate like she did. It breaks my heart that you would make light of it............HaHa hide there own eggs! They can use the same ones every year. Lol ; )
2016-03-29 00:35:00 · answer #3 · answered by Marilyn 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋