What is the name of the breathing right before death?

The death rattle…. that is the only thing I have heard of.

I have heard it called Cheyne-Stokes breathing.

Agonal
(The spasmodic open mouth with contraction of the diaphragm and retraction of the hyoid apparatus which occurs at death.) I learned it during EMT training.

Agonal. As in “This dog is agonal -intubate and find out if the owners want CPR”.

According to the Wikipedia article, agonal respiration is not the same as a death rattle, although both occur just before death. Both are medical terms, but they have different causes.

What I am thinking of is the death rattle.

My mother described a death rattle as being very loud.
I suspect I will know it when I hear it.

@filmfann It is.

To be honest I think I’d rather not know.

My mother’s final breaths didn’t gurgle at all. She gapped her breathing out, almost like she forgot to breathe, and then she would take a giant breath. Two breaths later she was gone.

Tranquilsea, my mother is 93 and I truly dread the thoughts of her last breath. Your answer has prepared me for her last breath. Thanks, I will now know what to look for. She is in a nursing home and not well, at all.

@john65pennington I was terrified too. But everything ended up being so peaceful. As peaceful as dying can be. I just wish she could have been awake so I could tell her again how much I love her.

The only thing that I didn’t expect was how much saliva ran out of her mouth. She had been on a respirator. If I had known that was going to happen I would have brought softer clothes to wipe it away. I had to make do with the scratchy hospital towels. I can’t imagine that felt comfortable for her although I wiped as softly as I could.