What fails in the body?
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People with severe Alzheimer’s develop apraxia, which is basically an inability to understand how things work or recognize common objects and activities. As a result you will have people either eating and drinking things that aren’t food (I had a patient die from drinking a bottle of dandruff shampoo brought in by their family member), or by failing to recognize food and drinks put in front of them. If left to their own devices (ie not hand fed, or eventually tube-fed [please don’t do this to your demented loved ones]), people with severe enough dementia die of complications of dehydration or starvation, or a pneumonia/pneumonitis caused by inhaling vomit or poorly swallowed food/water.
Source: I’m a family doctor who does end of life care.
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