[MRM]

I can offer you some words of comfort. She is not aware of her surroundings and is for all intents and purposes unconscious. She does not feel pain or discomfort. Her mind stopped working, and with it went the ability to perceive.

A friend of mine's father went into dementia. He was a former federal judge, huge man in the history of the state, but he went into dementia. He was bad for about a year or so until they inserted a shunt or did some sort of temporary wizardry that reversed the dementia. True story. He woke up fully alert like the light switch flipped back on. His family was ecstatic and kept crying, Dad, you're back. He was highly annoyed because he didn't remember anything when he was in dementia. As far as he remembered he was just fine, he went to sleep for a year and a half and woke up. As far as he was concerned nothing ever happened.

This is what dementia patients experience. They appear to be in distress but they are not because they are no longer able to perceive distress. Their brains just don't function like that any more.

So my words of comfort are that she is not suffering, even though she looks upset or confused. She isn't suffering any more.