A life-limiting illness is a chronic disease or condition that doesn’t respond to curative treatments, leading to a terminal diagnosis. Having a life-limiting illness qualifies a patient for hospice.

Cancer is the most common such illness. Others include:

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Dementia
• Stroke
• ALS (“Lou Gehrig’s Disease”)
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Heart disease or congestive heart failure
• Cardiomyopathy
• Emphysema and other respiratory diseases
• Liver disease
• End-stage renal disease
• AIDS

Hospice may also be appropriate for those patients who have several conditions that, when considered together, leave their health fragile and shorten their life expectancy.