I just returned from a week up in Virginia visiting my mother. She is 89 and living on her own with my brother visiting her everyday. She refused to come live with me, and would not hear of not living in her house on her own. I spoke to her on the phone and she told me that she was sick, but would not go to the doctor. My brother showed up one day and found her passed out on the floor. She was transported to the hospital where they discovered a UTI and sepsis infection. She was treated with strong anti-biotics for about ten days. She seems to be out of the woods now, but has been in bed two weeks. She still can't speak or swallow, and seems to have some mental problems. Yesterday they placed a feeding tube in her stomach. Up til now they had been nourishing her through a feeding tube in her nose. It is sad to see my mom like this, and frustrating that we can not communicate with her. I think that soon she will be transferred to a rehabilitation facility. I don't know how much she will recover due to her age and the severe infection that she had. We just have to wait and see. My brother is my mom's angel, he tries to communicate with her. She is partially deaf and we don't know if she is understanding us or not, but we keep talking to her. It is a hell of a state to be in when you have been an independent person all your life. It will happen to us all one day.