Both Barbara Bush and John McCain died within two days

[question everything]

after announcing that they would stop treatment.

Can the medical profession really predict the end of lie within days?

Just curious.

[ghostsinthemachine]

1. yeah, they can

pretty much at the end of life. my docs cant tell me when i will die right now, but assure they will inform when death is imminent. im stage 4 cancer.

[unblock]

3. Oof

Best of luck fighting it!

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I am so very sorry.

[question everything]

6. I am sorry to hear that

I hope that you are not in pain and can enjoy life as long as you can.

[dewsgirl]

11. I am so very sorry.

[CentralMass]

12. I'm very sorry..

[CentralMass]

2. There are end of life practices that come into play.or in other words the extraordinary efforts to

keep the person alive are halted and they are given adequate pain medication.

[Freddie]

4. My dad had a stroke at 91

He started hospice care, which ends all medications except those needed for comfort. They took him off his heart meds and he was gone in 2 days. Apparently the heart meds has been keeping him alive for years.

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. My dad died the day after he went into hospice - stroke, at 79.

My wife's dad died the day they started hospice.
My wife's mom died the day after hospice began.

So, this is pretty familiar from what we've seen with our family members.

[MarianJack]

10. My mom was in hospice care in her home,...

...and she lived for a little more than three weeks. She was at peace and, I n her mind and heart, ready. She was just a few months short of her 85th birthday.

RESIST!

[kimbutgar]

8. People in hospice at end of life know the signs of inpending death.

With both of my parents I was told death was imminent.

[RockRaven]

9. Depends on what treatments are being used.

And if ALL treatments, or just attempted-curative treatments, or just life-prolonging treatments are being discontinued.

If any treatments related to breathing are in play, the predictive power could be on the scale of minutes to hours. But in general, the last phases of a slowly progressing but terminal disease like these two people had are rather predictable once that situation is upon you. Within that range at least.

You have to remember, to some degree this is like predicting the final score of a sportsball match a moment before it ends. Three months before these two people died, none of their doctors staked out 90 days as a prediction, as opposed to 60 or 80 or 95. The closer you get to the end, the tighter of a prediction you can make w/o jerking everyone around.

[Mosby]

13. They likely both stopped treatment before the announcements

And when death was imminent a statement was made.