Intestinal blockage questions, please help

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the esophageal cancer page. I have colorectal so that's where I've been posting and everyone on there is wonderfully helpful. My concern right now is for my brother who is dealing with stage two esophageal cancer. He's been on chemo and radiation but then became very sick and had violent spells of vomiting. They inserted a feeding tube and he was good for a few days then it came back worse than before. He actually threw up his feeding tube.

He was taken to emergency and hospitalized. They reinserted the feeding tube but have reduced the amount that goes in it. They've diagnosed an intestinal blockage but don't know if it's just a section of the intestine that's not working or if it's actually blocked off. He has two hernias he's never had treated and the doctors think they might be the issue. He's not a good candidate for surgery due to having COPD and the radiation has damaged his heart and lungs. He's otherwise healthy, though.

The worst case scenario if they do the surgery is he'll die on the table due to being on a respirator too long. The best outcome is that he'll survive it but be on a respirator for up to six months afterwards. He's already stated that he won't agree to surgery but we're trying to talk him into it. If he has a kinked or twisted intestine that's left untreated he'll be gone within a week. He's sixty-seven years old. I think that since this has gone on for over a week it's not just a section of intestine that needs to wake up. I had that after my cancer surgery and it only took a couple of days to wake up.

Can somebody shed some light on what it's like to be on a respirator that long or what the possibilities might be if he does the surgery? Please, I can't seem to find any useful information on line.

Thank you,

Jan