It sounds as though you are talking about acute care in a hospital or hospice setting, not long term care in assisted living or nursing homes.  This is apples and oranges.

RE

Yes, you have been talking about acute care in a hospital setting, I was explaining choices in post acute care after she leaves the hospital.  As I said, there probably won't be many choices and they probably won't be very good.

RE

Now that we have clarified the situation some, I can explain how it would go if she was in an FSoA hospital.

She was not expected to live long, so was kept in an acute care setting with RNs on duty 24/7.  The amount of time they will do that is generally limited, they don't have that many beds of that type.  Besides a respirator, if she can't or won't eat and needs a feeding tube that also keeps her in hospital a while longer.

To clear the bed, they need to discharge her and send her to a post-acute care facility.  Choices are limited and they usually aren't very good, for all the reasons I mentioned.  However, they can't discharge you unless you sign the discharge papers.  There is a lot of pressure put on you to sign.  I assume you have her power of attorney.

Your other choice is to take her home and care for there, with some help each day from a home care aid.  Here the home care system is failing due to lack of people who will do this work.  Not sure of the situation there.

How old is she?  Keep us updated on progress.

RE

QuoteShe is in her 90's.

The last years of life can be really tough if you don't die from a disease or metabolic failure that kills you relatively quickly.  Nowadays also there are meds and procedures that keep people living when they really should just die.  We really need the euthanasia option available.

RE