DH has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)

[GDUL]

I would like to say that I'm sorry to hear of so many of your family members that have this dreadful disease. If they are having problems coughing out their pulmonary secretions, you might want to look at the Cough Assist. It's a machine that moves secretions out of the lungs noninvasively. Basically, it gives the user a positive pressure breath and follows that with a rapid shift to a negative pressure exhalation. The shift from positive to negative pressure is a cough (or helps a poor cough). It has to be ordered by a doctor and will be set up by a homecare company. Here's some information on the Cough Assist:

http://coughassist.respironics.com/default.asp

Gary