two words:
christopher reeve
He lived for years on a vent and eventually regained the ability to speak. He became a powerful advocate for the disabled. His life had purpose, although he was on a vent and paralyzed from the neck down.
A vent or a Trach with a portable oxygen generator? Second biggie is why the need for one? I see him with a Trach. An oxygen generator can be hooked up via a trach. Quadriplegia comes with complications and being very vulnerable to infections. In my wife's case of her 29 years of quad her body contorted and began pressing on her left lung thus the reason the doctors could not fully suction it. On top of that she had Asthma, mild emphysema, and the Pulmonary Doc told her several years earlier her lungs were likely beginning to crystallize.
For Christopher Reeve or any other high level quad his life expectancy was short. He for as high a level of quad as he was is an exception & not the norm. It was the same with my wife who was a partial or incomplete quad at her C-5/C-6 level. Her initial prognoses was 5 years and she did not have lung disease at onset of her quadriplegia. She beat the odds five times over thanks to dedicated doctors. But up till the last month of her life she was not on oxygen. She developed bacterial pneumonia on her contorted side which was pressing on her lung.
If what Reeve was on was in fact a respirator he had the whirlwhistle to afford a full time Respiratory Therapist and nurse at home. Each person is different. When my wife was in the hospital it was in ICU and at one point 5 were on Vents. She was there almost a month as was one other on almost as long as her.
The plain and simple truth is this and I didn't just take the doctors word I looked it up. There are limited places a person long term ventilator dependent can go. That is due to the staffing requirements plus the fact very few persons wish to live out the rest of their days far away from family in an institution. The nearest facility to us was nearly 500 miles away.
I don't think we know fully what is going on with this man. The doctors and hospital are obligated to privacy laws. His family is not. Meaning we are getting one side of this.
BTW A person may be able to breath even up to 24 hours while a Ventilator is in the Static Mode. That inflates the lungs and allows the person to breath on their own. That is the process they use to slowly take a person off of one. They see how long they can breath with it in static, then if successful turned off.
Didn’t some famous disabled person advocate the murder of Terri? I can’t recall who it was, and I may be wrong.