My mother has been hospitalized in China, my home country, since mid Dec 2025 when she got the flu and pneumonia. She was put on an NG tube and a urinary catheter after she was admitted. While I know NG tube is meant for short term, in Asia, they put tubes in bed bound elderly for years.
My mother is 89 and she attempted suicide before after she became unable to walk or stand. Signing a medical directive is almost unheard of over there. Hospice is a horrible place to go as people like her would be treated unprofessionally, carelessly and without dignity.
Before getting sick in Dec, her health condition has been declining. She used to be able to sit there and eat by herself but last year she required some hand feeding for each meal. But she has been living at home for years without fever or antibiotics. My brother moved her to a chair toilet next to bed to pee and poop. She didn't have bedsores before.
She has been treated with antibiotics for pneumonia and bedsores in hospital since Dec but she frequently had fever even on antibiotics. Perhaps I should think about letting her go but I want to ask how to safely wean her off feeding tubes.
The doctors there said while on NG tube she should not eat by mouth, she would choke, they said. But based on what I read online, she has to gradually eat real food to wean herself off the tube.
Currently she coughs and has low fever and fever constantly. She is weak. I am concerned that the NG tube and catheter can put her on a vicious cycle and she will eventually die.
We will check her out of hospital and put her on adult diaper which will lower UTI risk compared to catheter, although not sure if getting her out while she is on and off fever is a good idea.
I want her to eat some soft, moist real food but will she choke while on NG tube? We don't know how to put tube in and out at home. Would go to hospital when tube needs to be replaced. She is too weak to pee or poop
Thanks in advance for your inputs. I am very inexperienced dealing with her current situation.
If you're not in China I don't know how you plan to manage transitioning her off. We aren't medical professionals on this forum. Is there such a thing as hospice care in China?
I'm so sorry for this distressing situation.
Hospice care is very very few and run by private entities. Online reviews are very horrifying and these places tend to charge families a fortune when patients die
My brother is afraid to insert the tube for my mother. Did you use stethoscope at home to check the tube you inserted was at the right place? I can buy a stethoscope but don't know how to use it.
If I send her to a nursing home in china, they will withdraw stomach fluid before injecting nutritional soft food but I don't think they will do all the textbook checks done in the US.
You brought up a good point on the tube being pulled out. In the hospital, they tie her hands at night to prevent her from pulling the tube