Until recently my aunt was living a pretty routine life, considering. She has had a harsh childhood and has had life rough here and there, which has resulted in being mentally unstable, which she has seen a mental health expert and has taken pills, almost her entire life. When on medication she seems very normal and smart. She is living and has been living for many years now, with her sister, my mother. There have been issues in living life here and there, with everyone having to pull together to get through some things, and until now, worked well. Now out of the blue, nothing extra stressful or hard happening, my aunt went directly from normal to refusing to eat a single thing. We all noticed immediately, seeing how most of her meals came from my mom for some time already. Finally, after about a week of finding every single thing my mom was feeding her still left untouched, my mom stressed enough and confronted her about the issue. My aunt immediately owned it, but stated a week in, she had what felt like a hard knot with pain in her stomach every time she ate anything so she was avoiding food for that reason and agreed at that time that she would continue to drink her daily whole milk and not eat, and was willing to schedule a doctor's appointment for it immediately. Soonest appointment was about a month away, of course. My Aunt is about a month and a half now refusing a single bite of physical food, but has reasonably migrated from just whole milk, to a drinking boost to help boost her nutrition. Now however, she has major weight loss from this short period of time, no interest or energy to get up from where she has laid down due to weakness, not interested in anything, sleeps all the time, and doesn't want to be seen by a doctor. We are all just watching her get weaker and more helpless and wish we could do something to get her help without getting her mad or upset, but feel like we are watching her slowly die, if she keeps going like she is without trying to get help, and none of us are wanting to watch her just die. She was very normal even a couple of months ago, so we are all kinda in shock as we are handling the situation. We want to know if we can get her any kind of help and it doesn't look like it had anything to do with us, for fear of her feeling betrayed by us, but we see her getting weak enough already, that she should have been seeing an expert about this issue already, and may die any time with extra discomfort that may come from lacking enough nutrients. Also, anyone out there with expertise on this subject, can anyone give me an idea, on average, how long a person can live, if drinking boost is the only form of nutrition? Any information regarding this topic would be appreciated as we all strive to understand and get through those very stressful time. Thank you
That is not her giving up and waiting to die - she needs emergency medical attention today! If she is refusing (or unable) to get in the car, call 911 and have an ambulance take her.
I don't know what to say about these new fangled laws that allow people to starve themselves to death and refuse medical help.
Once diagnosed, she has the right to receive or reject treatment.
Your aunt is dying/killing herself, and someone needs to step up to the plate to help her before it's too late.
Tag...you're it.
What country are you in?
If in the States, take her to the ER today. If she doesn't want to go, call for an ambulance. Explain she is not cooperating with care and maybe the EMTs can convince her to go.
Is anyone her medical PoA? If so, this person needs to take the paperwork to the ER and let every and any medical team know they have the paperwork and will be representing her interests.