Can you be stable on life support?

When patients have curable or treatable conditions, life support is used temporarily until the illness or disease can be stabilized and the body can resume normal functioning. At times, the body never regains the ability to function without life support.

How long can a person be in a ventilator?

How long does someone typically stay on a ventilator? Some people may need to be on a ventilator for a few hours, while others may require one, two, or three weeks. If a person needs to be on a ventilator for a longer period of time, a tracheostomy may be required.

Has anyone ever lived after being on life support?

Michele De Leeuw, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, has almost fully recovered after open heart surgery, speech and physical therapy.

How long do they keep you on life support?

More invasive life support, such as heart/lung bypass, is only maintained for a few hours or days, but patients with artificial hearts have survived for as long as 512 days.

How long can someone be on life support with no brain activity?

Today, with ventilators, blood-pressure augmentation and hormones, the body of a brain-dead person could, in theory, be kept functioning for a long time, perhaps indefinitely, Greene-Chandos said.

Can someone recover from being on life support?

There are many people who have portable ventilators and continue to live a relatively normal life. However, people who are using a life-support device don’t always recover. They may not regain the ability to breathe and function on their own.

How long does it take for a person to die from life support?

Choosing to remove life support usually means that the person will die within hours or days. The timing depends on what treatment is stopped. People tend to stop breathing and die soon after a ventilator shuts off, though some do start breathing again on their own.

What is life support and how does it work?

Life support means feeding tubes, intravenous drips, mechanical respiration, heart/lung bypass, urinary catheterisation and dialysis. Two main complications can occur: infections at the points where intravenous lines and drains enter the body, and the problems associated with long periods of immobility.

How long can a person live without life support?

If the life support is a dialysis machine the person may live up to month without dialysis. If it is a cardiac pulse generating or respirator the person may not live longer than 10 minutes. But miracles does happen.

How do doctors decide when to stop life support?

When someone is unconscious or not of sound mind, doctors and family members decide when life support measures should stop. It’s a hard decision, especially if the sick person hasn’t previously discussed his end-of-life wishes with his family.