I have been discussing mom's meds with my sister and one of the questions we keep coming back to is should we stop them? I discussed this in another post earlier. As a result of these discussions she wanted me to ask if anyone knows what the approx length of time a person with late stage AD lives once transferred to a nursing home. Does anyone on this forum have experience with this? At this point I am not sure what is motivating the question but I told her that I would ask. Looking forward to any insight.

Wow. I imagine the answer to that question varies tremendously.
The fact that someone is in a nursing home implies that they are
pretty seriously incapacitated, and are at the end of their life.
On the other hand, I am ever amazed at how long a body can
cling to life, as long as the very basic nutritional needs are being
met. Your local Hospice chapter may be a good resource for you
and your sister to check on.
Best of luck,
Carol

Hi Linda,

When my mom entered the psychiatric hospital 99% of what she said didn't make sense and she couldn't really do much of anything except toilet and feed herself. She was evaluated for 10 days by Dr.'s who deal with this all the time and he told me that because of my mom's good health and basically young age, 73 yrs. that even in a facility for AD we could be looking at 5-7 years. BUT, that said, Carol is right, each one is different. We heard from Mom's Dr. the other day that AD will likely be what takes her life not some other health issue, but with many others, another health issue will take them before AD.

I know that from the beginning, God ordained her days, it is just hard for us living with AD and having to make the decisions to know what to do in the midst of it. I ask for wisdom daily for all of us as we try to do our best.

Hope that helps some Linda,

~Kelly~

Hi Linda, I've asked that question a few times as well. The range of time people live with AD in general is so wide. There definitely is a correlation between nursing home placement and terminal decline, I've read that in studies. I don't remember an average lifespan being mentioned. I can tell you that the usual cause of death from AD-related death is pneumonia from aspiration. That is why you often see end-stage AD patients with PEG tubes in their stomach to feed them. It's a slow process. I can tell you that when working for an ambulance company I would transport many end-stage AD patients that were in the nursing facility for 5+ years. Sadly, their quality of life was minimal. Sorry I couldn't give you an exact answer, I'll ask around for you.