How long can body live without water............

[bluedog]

is someone giving terri water.......I didn't think about this before I read this.
a poster on yahoo posted:


person can live without food for quite some time, usually for many weeks.
The body will use its fat and protein stores (muscles) to help it survive.
If a person has a lot of fat stores (is very heavy), they will live longer than a
person who has very little fat (very thin), so how long a person can survive
depends a lot of the person. Of course, if you go without food for a few weeks,
you will be very weak since you have been using your own muscles for energy.

Water is a different story. A person will die within 3-4 days without water. The
size of the person really doesn't make much difference.

[westcor]

1. YEs

I am positive someone is giving her water, no way she has lived twice as long as the average person. She is in bad health as well which should speeed up the process.... conspiracy!

[bluedog]

3. I also think they

are giving her something to stay alive.it doesn't make sense to me........any drs or nurses on this board today?

[12345]

2. I've had the same question...anyone know?

[The Magistrate]

4. Three Or Four Days, Ma'am

Is somewhat of an exaggeration of the limits for an active and healthy person. From my own experience, three days without water will not kill an active young man, though it will make him damned uncomfortable....

For a person at rest in a bed, inactive entirely, two weeks more or less seems to be the expected endurance.

[democracyindanger]

5. The neurologist that spanked Scarborough said 11-16 days

[Demit]

8. Dr Cranford? Actually he said 10 to 14 days

[Walt Starr]

6. Her transpiration rate is far lower than a normal person

ergo, it takes longer to die of dehydration.

This is consistent with people in PVS.

[tubbacheez]

7. I heard she was getting morphine.

The liquid form of the drug contains some water. If they're using an I.V. the saline solution would provide even more.

[Warpy]

11. She's getting morphine suppositories.

If she needs injections, the amount of fluid in a whole dose of morphine (which generally ranges from 2 mg to 16 mg in even increments) is one cc. of water. To put that into perspective, a teaspoonful is 5 cc.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. I Am Going To Put In My Living Will

Just shoot me before you stick morphine up my ass....

[napi21]

9. All the Med. professionals that I've heard said 10 to 14 days, but

sometimes a little longer. It all depends on how hydrated the body was before the water supply was removed.

If you listen closely to the different reports, they have been saying her organs have begun to shut down. Since she hasn't had any physical actifity in a very long time, there's not much use of liquids in her body, so it's taking longer.

I really doubt the hospice is giving her water. Remember, the tube has been removed, and all the Drs said she is incapable of swallowing anything except her own saliva.

[Warpy]

10. Activity level makes a big difference

and someone who has only been lifted between bed and recliner chair for fifteen years is going to last a whole lot longer than one of us stuck in the middle of nowhere with no water.

One to two weeks is the usual range. I've seen it go as long as three and a half weeks, but the lady was on a morphine drip that supplied her with about a cup of liquid a day.

However long it takes, I think it may be a relief when it happens, and I am glad her long period of total disability is over.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. On our local TV news last night

they did a piece about our local hospice people. A man was interviewed whose wife has been off food and water since March 7, and she's still hanging in there.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. An inactive person in a controlled climate? 10-14 days

This isn't the Sahara desert we're talking about, after all.

[ultraist]

14. I wouldn't be surprised if they are giving her water

It would be easy for the parents to sneak water into her through an injection. Our vet gave our dog an injection of fluids right into her skin when she was dehydrated from vomiting. She perked right up within a few minutes.

Nutritionists generally say people can survive only 8-10 days without water:
A person can survive only eight to ten days without water, whereas it takes weeks or even months to die from a lack of food

But as others have pointed out, she is not using much up as her brain has such low activity and she is bedridden. This supports the doctors' 10-14 days estimate.

I heard a physician say she once had a patient that lived for 30 days with no water but I have to wonder if this person was recieving some type of fluids via IV.

[_TJ_]

16. How many days is she gone now?

[Divameow77]

17. 12, I think

[DearAbby]

18. She is somewhat healthy...little movement to expend body energy.

could tale a little longer...but from reports of thready pulse, morphine use, probably to ease respiratory, labored breathing, and kidney shut down...It could be at anytime.

[SnowGoose]

19. You have to remember

that a good share of water exits the body through breathing (transpiration) if you're moving around more, you breathe more, and hence lose more water.

Even your kidneys react to activity level. The first part of your kidneys' elimination system is essentially a leaky bundle of blood vessels called the glomerulus. As you'd guess, the rate at which fluid comes out of it depends on how much blood is going through it (it's referred to as 'glomerular filtration rate' or GFR). When your blood pressure goes up (as is the case in physical activity) your GFR goes up, and more water leaves your blood stream.

Lying immobile in bed, you could last vastly longer than if you were up and moving about.