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In Natural Death, Do People Have To Experience Suffocation Until

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Posted on Tue, 22 Sep 2020
Question: In natural death, do people have to experience suffocation until they die since breathing is the last thing that stops or are they unconscious and unaware by the time this happens?
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Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (46 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
In most cases, there do not feel suffocated.

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for posting your query.

The feeling of suffocation occurs if the primary disease is respiratory (such as asthma/pneumonia, etc) or neuro-muscular weakness (such as motor neuron disease). In these cases, patients struggle for breathing in most cases. However, the death is not sudden and symptoms progress over days to weeks. So, if doctors are consulted, they provide medicines to blunt the feeling of struggle.

In most other cases, the death is due to heart attacks or brain hemorrhage and in these cases, people do not struggle for breaths as the deaths are sudden, and moreover, the brain structures (responsible for awareness, etc) get damaged due to lack of blood flow.

I hope it helps.

Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology)
Consultant Neurologist
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Sudhir Kumar

Neurologist

Practicing since :1994

Answered : 6232 Questions

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In Natural Death, Do People Have To Experience Suffocation Until

Brief Answer: In most cases, there do not feel suffocated. Detailed Answer: Hi, Thank you for posting your query. The feeling of suffocation occurs if the primary disease is respiratory (such as asthma/pneumonia, etc) or neuro-muscular weakness (such as motor neuron disease). In these cases, patients struggle for breathing in most cases. However, the death is not sudden and symptoms progress over days to weeks. So, if doctors are consulted, they provide medicines to blunt the feeling of struggle. In most other cases, the death is due to heart attacks or brain hemorrhage and in these cases, people do not struggle for breaths as the deaths are sudden, and moreover, the brain structures (responsible for awareness, etc) get damaged due to lack of blood flow. I hope it helps. Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology) Consultant Neurologist