Well he sure lived a lot longer than most people with his disease.
My mom was slurring an odd word on occasion in the fall of 1990, when her dentist sent her to a specialist because of it. She died just before election night in 1992. She loved politics. Her ALS was the kind that hits speech, swallowing, and breathing the hardest. The other type goes more after ambulatory parts of the body.
His survival was astonishing.
I experienced ALS up close and personal, I had a serious boyfriend who was struck down by it. Awful disease.