Hi. My father who is 89 years old and and is in the hospital(1 week)with a ng feeding tube and tracheostomy( as of yesterday) has been suffering from dysphasia and respiratory problems for most of his adult life. He has always been very careful with chewing small bites of food so he can swallow safely and he takes a long time to drink fluids. His larynx has had cancer years ago that was cured but he has progressively lost muscle function in his esophagus. Prior to the hospitalization for reasons he can t explain he decided to eat a raw apple, skinned and cut in tiny pieces. He hadn t had one in probably 30 years. He subsequently ended up with aspiration pneumonia which landed him in the predicament he is in. What is the realistic outcome of him ever successfully being free of the tracheostomy.