Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How long does death take?

My 93 year old father is at the end of life. He had surgery on his hip and has faded since then. In the hospital, failed his swallow test, now suffering from dementia and delirium. His ejection fraction has been 20% for some time, down from 25% two years ago.


The decision has been made to disable his ICD and pacemaker. I'm wondering how long after that it might take for him to die.


And no, I am not upset, just curious.

Minutes or Hours.
Afraid there's no good answer.

Watching my dad over the last yr I have already decided I'll eat a bullet like my uncle did before I put my family through it.

When the respirations drop to about 6 they give em a blast of morphine

Could be a long time.

Like a week.

Also depends on if thr hospital can drain anything else out of Medicare

Sorry about your dad.

I have no clue, my mom went quick after they stopped dialysis. She was full of cancer. Just a few hours.

Sorry to hear this. Hope the gentleman passes peacefully.

When my mother was taken off life support, it was 2 very long days.

When my brother was dying of cancer, Hospice provided me a booklet that explained dying is a process that can take up to a week or so. Now I don't know if this is accurate but it was pretty much spot on with him. I still have it and if I can locate it, I'll post the title. I'm sorry you're having to go through this. I've been through it too many times. I also learned they may wait until you are not present before they pass.

There is no answer, everyone's different. When that point came for my own father at 93, he went into hospice care where medications and treatments were discontinued. He was given morphine when he showed signs of discomfort. Dr said it was a matter of hours, he drew his last breath 8 days later.

I worked at a hospital when Dr. Kevorkian was in the news. Every RN and Paramedic I knew supported the work of Dr. Kevorkian.

Just wondering. Hoping it's before my days off so I can get some good shooting time and hit some catfish.

No kidding.

It could be tomorrow, or it could be awhile.

My dad had congestive heart failure, and he was gonna die from it.

There was nothing anyone could do, and he had organs shutting down. He signed a DNR, and said he wanted to go.

But he kept hanging on. Days and weeks turned to a couple of months.

One morning the Hospice nurse asked him how he was, and he said he was fine, other than he could feel his pacemaker shocking him...

Nurse said "What pacemaker?" Seems he'd not told them about that, and for terminal care options with DNR's, etc., a pacemaker was a no-go.

They called us kids, and asked if they could turn it off. I asked if he would know it? She said no, they just bring a laptop in, and connect with Bluetooth, and turn it off.

So that's what they did. About a week later he passed. Kinda... My brother was in the room and said he moaned and groaned all night and was suffering greatly. I asked if he was conscious? Brother said no, he wasn't but was suffering. And he wasn't going to listen to that another night.

I told him to talk to the Hospice nurse when she came in that morning and tell her specifically "He suffered all night, and was never conscious, and we would like her to give him a powerful shot to ease his suffering." Told my brother to be real clear about that.

Brother called in about an hour and said he was dead. I asked if he'd told the nurse what I said? He said he did, and she gave him a shot, and in about 15 minutes he had passed.

Hospice is a Godsend.

Seen that personally.

Sheesh.

This has got to be tough on you, prayers for you and family.

Just shot a ground squirrel out the back door......

Ruger 77/17M2........purty quick dead

diggin & chewing SOB's

I've been fortunate in that my parents and grandparents all went quickly.
One of my five aunts had Parkinson's and suffered quit a while.

Condolences.