death rattle

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Death rattle the gurgling sound produced by air passing through mucus or fluid in the lungs of a dying person. It is said to indicate approaching death, or sometimes to be the sign of the arrival of death itself; the last sound a dying person makes.

Gustave Flaubert described Emma Bovary's death rattle in vivid terms:

At once her breast began to heave rapidly. Her tongue hung at full length from her mouth; her rolling eyes grew dim like the globes of two lamps about to go out; and one might have thought her dead already but for the terrifying, ever-faster movement of her ribs, which were shaken by furious gasps, as though her soul were straining violently to break its fetters.

— Sarah Goodfellow

A gurgling or rattling sound sometimes made in the throat of a dying person, caused by loss of the cough reflex and passage of the breath through accumulating mucus.

• Language of Death - death rattle: gurgle of air passing through mucus in throat of dying person

For the vocalization style used in heavy metal music, see Death growl.

For the Pantera song, see Reinventing the Steel.

A death rattle is a medical term that describes the sound produced by someone who is near death when saliva accumulates in the throat. Those who are dying may lose their ability to swallow, resulting in such an accumulation. While death rattle is a strong indication that someone is near death,^[1] it can also be produced by other problems that cause interference with the swallowing reflex, for instance, brain injuries.^{[citation needed]}

It is sometimes misinterpreted as the sound of the person choking to death. In hospice and palliative care, drugs such as glycopyrronium, hyoscine hydrobromide or atropine may be used to reduce secretions and minimize this effect.^[2]

See also

• End-of-life care

References

1. ^ Wee, B.; Hillier, R. (2008). Wee, B.. ed. "Interventions for noisy breathing in patients near to death". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (1): CD005177. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD005177.pub2. PMID 18254072. 
2. ^ Hipp, B.; Letizia, M. (2009). "Understanding and responding to the death rattle in dying patients". Medsurg Nursing 18 (1): 17–21, 32; quiz 22. PMID 19331295. 

External links

Look up death rattle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Medical College of Wisconsin End-of-Life/Palliative Education Resource Center - Death Rattle
• East Tennessee State University - pulmonary breath sounds page with a death rattle sound clip

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