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Geriatric failure to thrive, a controversial French concept not present in the international literature, was first defined by Jean Carrié in 1956. It is described as a process of aging and physical and psychological decline associated with advanced age, which manifests as a pronounced overall deterioration. In this case report, we present the case of an 88-year-old patient, admitted to a general medicine service for geriatric failure to thrive, whose care eventually led to the diagnosis of infective endocarditis with gastrointestinal cancer complicated by a major depressive episode. This case prompts us to consider geriatric failure to thrive with extreme caution and challenges the legitimacy of such a diagnosis in the context of an aging population and the progress of medical sciences.