My Aunt

I don't know if this is the right forum, perhaps so. Sorry if it isn't.
I'll begin.

I have an aunt, my fathers sister. She is nearly 80 years old and has been suffering from numerous ailments, namely dementia and her own stubborn attitude.
She was unable to live on her own so she moved in with her son, who after several months decided she needed to live in a nursing home. After several months of that, she finally convinced my father to let her move close to him. He built a small apartment type structure on his property, and allowed her to move in there. She was on meds and had to be given them sporadically during the day because she would take them all in one sitting and wind up overdosing. It was already known that she abused (of all things) BC powder, and would take nearly a dozen packs a day - and has done so for years.
The day after christmas, she began vomiting blood and was extremely disoriented so they took her to the hospital.
Mind you, this hospital is a joke. Two decades ago, my ex-wife snapped her ankle in two, and THEY missed it in the X-ray.
Anyway, when they arrived at the hospital the doctors tried to give her IV's and she kept fighting them and she had to be restrained. After she became a little more competent, they told her that the years of BC abuse had eroded her stomach and esophagus lining which was the source of the blood loss. They told her they needed to do the (I forget the name of it) procedure where they put the camera down one's throat to view the damage. She was laughing and talking with family before she went in to the procedure seemingly in good spirits. After she came out of the procedure, she has been in a vegetative state - unresponsive to anyone talking to her, appearing oblivious to anything going on around her. Shortly after that, the doctor came to the family and warned them that she could die at any time because her vitals had fallen so low. Now, I'm not a doctor. I can barely put a band-aid on, but I don't think that anyone should suffer such grave consequences from what I understand is a simple procedure. It's been several days now since they gave her less than 24 hours to live and she's still here. Her vitals are improving slightly, so they've moved her out of the ICU. My question is - What could have went on during that procedure that would have taken her from being fairly ok to the stoop of death's door?

Im just giving a short response, but I lost two family members to alzheimer's/dementia under seperate /different circumstances. But in brief one of them were in their late 70's, had gotten up late at night to use the restroom and fell and hit his head, this brought on a heart problem and he was taken into the emergency room via ambulance.

The doctor plainly said he will die without operating on the heart but the surgery could kill him also. Needless to say he had the surgery. He never came out normal again. He also came out as you would say in a vegitative state. Sadly the combination of the head trauma from the fall greatly increased his dementia and took a semi alzhemiers situation to a full blown one. Primarly we all believe the cause for the vegatative state was the anesthesia. When you get that old it is not safe at all to be put under.

He had been put under many times in the past for other surgeries adding in the alzheimer's/and pre existing dementia, it was too much for his mind and body, sadly he died not long after about a year and a half. He remained vegatative the whole time. Something very similar also happened to his wife. Its all very sad really. That is why we always try and enjoy the times we have with the people we love, but hindsite is always 20/20.

So to conclude I would suspect her being put under could be the culprit. If she wasnt put under then it could be a number of other things, infection, trauma, medical malpractice is always possible...... on and on. My best wishes for you and your family .