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Agonal respiration, gasping respiration, or agonal breathing is a distinct and abnormal pattern of breathing and brainstem reflex characterized by gasping labored breathing and is accompanied by strange vocalizations and myoclonus. Possible causes include cerebral ischemia, hypoxia (inadequate oxygen supply to tissue), or anoxia (total oxygen ...
A death rattle is noisy breathing that often occurs in someone near death. [1] Accumulation of fluids such as saliva and bronchial secretions in the throat and upper airways is the cause. [ 2 ] Those who are dying may lose their ability to swallow and may have increased production of bronchial secretions, resulting in such an accumulation. [ 3 ]
Respiratory arrest is a serious medical condition caused by apnea or respiratory dysfunction severe enough that it will not sustain the body (such as agonal breathing). Prolonged apnea refers to a patient who has stopped breathing for a long period of time. If the heart muscle contraction is intact, the condition is known as respiratory arrest.
Matt Nader visits with Bill Wolters at North Austin Medical Center on Wednesday. Wolters had an AED implanted in his chest. Nader helped save his life when he was stricken after a football game ...
Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. [1] It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condition called cardiac arrest .
The aforementioned mechanism is the most common cause of brain death; however, this increase in intracranial pressure does not always occur due to an arrest in cardiopulmonary function. [5] Traumatic brain injuries and subarachnoid hemorrhages can also increase the intracranial pressure in the brain leading to a cessation of brain function and ...
The phenomenon has been observed to occur several minutes after the removal of medical ventilators used to pump air in and out of brain-dead patients. [4] It also occurs during testing for apnea—that is, suspension of external breathing and motion of the lung muscles—which is one of the criteria for determining brain death used for example by the American Academy of Neurology.
Cadaveric spasm is seen in cases of drowning victims when grass, weeds, roots or other materials are clutched, and provides evidence of life at the time of entry into the water. Cadaveric spasm often crystallizes the last activity one did before death and is therefore significant in forensic investigations, e.g. holding onto a knife tightly. [4]