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"so then, why is removing a feeding tube going to kill her?"

There are any number of cases where someone is unable to feed themselves or eat solid food, but they are not 'brain dead' or a 'vegetable'. Should we starve someone to death simply because they cannot feed themselves or eat solid food? I doubt you'd agree to that.

In the average 100 bed LTC facility, there is usually about 12 to 20 tube feeders. Some are on a combination of oral feedings by day and tube feedings by night. Some eat meals and get bolus feedings via tube between meals. Whatever workds best.

It is very common. Many are alert, oriented. Just unable to physically feed themselves or unable to chew/swallow or not able to consume a sufficient amount of food by mouth.

Granted, as some people become more debilitated, family chooses not to put in a tube. But once the commitment is made, it stays until death (or improvement).

This is the first (honestly, after 15 years in LTC) time I have heard of a tube being pulled from someone who is not dying &/or vegetative.