Reply to End Stage Heart Failure-Hospice?

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[quote=Anonymous]Went through this with my dad. He had valve replacement surgery (open heart, not TAVR) at 87 and lived until a week after his 90th birthday. His CHF was not as advanced as your mother's appears to be.

Even if your mother were approved for surgery, it is not an easy recovery. My dad was in the hospital for 2 weeks after the surgery due to a complication, got hospital psychosis for several weeks, needed rehab in a hospital setting after the surgery, and then had to go to outpatient cardiac rehab for 6 months after coming home. At their age, all the time spent in hospitals just makes them weaker and it can take a while to regain whatever strength they had before surgery. And it's not like he was magically better after the surgery. It may have extended his life for a year or two, but it didn't improve the quality of his life.

Regarding hospice, my dad received hospice services the last two months of his life in his assisted living facility. It was great, actually. When he needed oxygen or other support, it was delivered within several hours. A hospice nurse came to visit twice a week and he enjoyed the visits because she was young, pretty, and very attentive. A doctor checked in regularly. It was free to us because he was on Medicare. I had the ability to call or text his nurse to get any of my questions answered, which was a great comfort to me. When done right, hospice is a good thing.[/quote]

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