4 ms·

I don't know much about ALS. How does one know that he is going to die "in the coming days"?

• hinkley 7y ago
  My understanding was that as it's a progressive disease, there are milestones in progression that help predict future events. Things tend to shut down in a particular order, and at a certain rate (based on past events and stressors). One of those future events is losing the ability to breathe. Which is just horrifying to think about.
• MS90 7y ago
  He's had it for at least a year. The disease gets progressively worse with time, and eventually causes patients to lose the ability to swallow or breathe. Doctors can probably give him a good estimate of time left based on symptom progression. From wiki: "The average survival from onset to death is two to four years, though this can vary.[5][16] About 10% survive longer than 10 years" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis