Please, please help me. I need answers desperately and quickly?

*hug* a trach is not being off the ventilator. its just a different, more permanent way to use the ventilator. the tube he had in his mouth is only temporary. so, when it becomes clear that a person is going to need to have that machine continue to breath for them, we give them a trach. sometimes people wean from the ventilator easier with trach, sometimes, they do not.

mrsa is probably the very least of his worries. there are 2 types of mrsa. theres community acquired- the kind you see on tv - that is relatively easy to kill, but can kill you. and then there is hospital acquired, which is hard to kill, but usually will not kill you. it really becomes a bigger problem when it becomes an active infection in your blood. with his problems, i would guess he likely has it in his sputum from his lungs. the pneumonia, emphysema, a PE... is a lot of overcome.

his prognosis would have a lot to do with how healthy he was before he got sick. was he independent, eating well, living a relatively active life? the thinner, more frail, less nourished a person is, the harder time they will have getting better. if he is *so* sick that he is having problems keeping his blood pressure up, and he is on iv medications to help keep up his blood pressure, that would make it a worse prognosis.

the unfortunate reality is once a person has a trach and is ventilator dependent, they will usually end up in a nursing home and will stay that way for a while unless they can successfully wean off the vent. its usually unrealistic to bring a fully grown, vent dependent adult home to be cared for there. hopefully, he will be able to wean off the vent with the trach, with his multiple lung complications, that will be a challenge for him. *hug*

It sounds like his immune system is SEVERELY weakened, which isn't really good when dealing with MRSA or pnuemonia. The reality of the situation is he has compromised lung function already (from emphysema) and a possible pulmonary embolism (which is serious and often times deadly by itself) and on top of that he's dealing with two very serious, sometimes deadly, infections. The odds, unfortunately, are stacked against him. However, that doesn't mean he's guranteed to die. I've seen people survive situations that were just as dire. One example is my own father. My father has been smoking since he was 7 years old (no lie), he's 57 now. He has almost 100% blockage in many of his arteries, he has spots on his lungs and kidneys, he's already had one heart attack, he's suffered from low blood sugar and he Multiple Sclorosis. About 2 weeks ago he had to go in for EXTREMELY risky surgery to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Those are frequently deadly for people who are otherwise healthy let alone someone in the kind of health that my father was in. But, he survived and is doing pretty well.

My point is, there is no need to completely give up hope even though it's going to probably be an uphill battle for him.

I hope it all works out well.

I am sorry to say he will probably not be okay. MRSA is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals, next to pneumonia. Emphysema is not curable. Even if he does not die this go around, he will not live a long time.

The important thing is to keep up hope. It's the beste medecine