I am so sorry, April. That was a rough decline.

There may have been other issues...perhaps he really had some myasthenia gravis, mixed in there. Autoimmune diseases sometimes cluster and overlap. In males, MG usually shows up after 50, and some doctors don't recognize it clearly. Just reading the MG board here, illustrates the challenges those patients have.

There are rapidly progressing PNs, and now they typically offer IVIG to stop them. But others can be hereditary, and don't respond to IVIG or other attempts to halt them.

Once a person gets pneumonia, and loses respiratory ability, it can be a fast decline. We had a cousin who developed pulmonary fibrosis after some radiation for a breast lump. This horrible cascade left her dead after 6mos or so. She was breathing normally until that one treatment, and boom, that was the end.

So I am sorry you had to lose your Dad that way.