I saw this thread and felt compelled to add some information for those who like to know about how people can die from complications of MS. People rarely die of MS, but they do die from a variety of problems created by MS and the results of dealing with these complications over many years. My Mom died at the age of 57 after a 15 year long battle with MS/Lupus variant. Her story is probably not typical, but MS and/or Lupus is unpredictable and small problems can become large very rapidly. From the beginning, she had difficulty with her vision, balance, spasms, swallowing, and coughing. She ended up totally confined to a wheelchair after a couple of years. After a few years,her bladder stopped working properly due to either MS itself or as a side effect of some medication she was prescribed to treat MS symptoms. From that point on, she was permanently catheterized. In my opinion, this single issue, contributed the most to her eventual death. She repeatedly had severe UTI's, due to the catheter, and became immune to an ever increasing number of antibiotics. At one point, she almost died from a UTI that turned into sepsis. In the end, one of the several causes of death on her death certificate was infection by 3 or more superbugs that were unresponsive to all available antibiotics. A 2nd serious complication caused by medication to treat MS was severe osteoporosis from years of daily steroid medications prescribed to ward off MS relapses. This caused Mom to severely break her ankle when her wheelchair tipped over in a freak accident on a ramp. The broken bone led to eventual bed confinement, which accelerated many other issues. Her lungs and heart became week. She frequently contracted respiratory infections that often turned into pneumonia. This was another cause of her death, pneumonia and compromised lung capacity. She eventually had to have a tracheostomy, which led to further serious complications. Because of this, she had to have a feeding tube. In the end, her primary cause of death was aspiration of the contents of her feeding tube. As you can see from just a few examples of complications my Mom experienced, MS can lead to a variety of problems that can eventually cause death.