I was reading a question on what it is like inside of a Poké Ball. It made me wonder what will happen to a Pokémon if the Poké Ball is lost or damaged. If the Poké Ball was unable to open, would they simple die?
There have been several instances in the show where a Pokémon was in its Poké Ball for a long time, such as in Sandshrew's Locker. In this episode, Ash and friends helped Mira recover Sandshrew's Poké Ball from the bottom of the lake, where it's been for a long time. Additionally, Mira and her friends discovered Sandshrew's Poké Ball themselves. In the episode Two Degrees of Separation! James found his Carnivine's Poké Ball inside a box containing one of his bottle cap collections, where he left it as a child. So, the precedents in the show indicate that Pokémon can survive a long time unattended in their Poké Ball, though it is unclear as to why since how the Pokéballs work is not well explained.
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2If we go with the idea that Pokémon get save digitally to the PC for storage, it isn't much of a stretch to save Pokémon at specific points in time that get loaded again when their Pokéball re-opens – Gorp Feb 8 '16 at 9:26