On vacation in Mexico last year, Michael DiPlacido passed out twice while scuba diving and again in his hotel. Back in St. Louis, Mo., doctors diagnosed him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, an incurable disease that often requires mechanical ventilation.

When his son Adam DiPlacido tried to find a permanent place to care for his father, who now needed a ventilator to breathe through a tracheostomy tube, he discovered none of Missouri's nearly 500 nursing homes could take him.

"I never thought it would be easy, but I never thought it would be this hard," Adam said.

A KFF Health News investigation found widespread flaws and gaps in care for some of the country's most debilitated people: those who cannot breathe on their own.

Spinal cord injuries, strokes, chronic obstructive p

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