Uncle out of hospital but entering nursing home.→[More:]My cousin has sent out an update on her father's condition. He was diagnosed with sepsis and/or diabetic ketoacidosis. He was unconscious for a week -- I guess the doctors did not feel it met the conditions for a coma, but he did not ever fully "wake up" during that time.

Eventually he regained consciousness, but his dementia (which was a serious problem beginning around two years ago) has fully set in and he does not remember her name, although he recognizes her when she comes in, and they can only have halting conversation. He denies he's in a hospital or sick, for example. Since he cannot feed himself he cannot return to the assisted living facility.

They don't really know why it happened other than that he was not eating properly at the facility. He showed up for meals but may not have eaten them. He had also recently been placed on librium due to combative incidents with staff and other patients, and had begun sleeping a lot more.

Prognosis is for continuing to limp along, conscious but basically unaware, with most of his memory unavailable to him.

We had a good relationship and it seems like there may be little chance I'll ever talk with him again.

I'm also concerned because my dad, his brother, could have a comparable progression, as he's started showing serious signs of dementia himself (and we -- my mom and I -- just can't really deal with it, given my DD nieces and nephew on our hands).