It is likely more distressing to the family and loved ones to hear the death rattle than it is to the patient experiencing it. If your loved one experiences end-stage wet respirations, here are some practical things you can do to minimize or eliminate it: Try changing the patient's position.
carbon dioxide - a heavy odorless colorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances; absorbed from the air by plants in photosynthesis.
Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is a product of respiration of all aerobic organisms. It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals, including humans.arbon dioxide was the first gas to be described as a discrete substance. In about 1640, the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont observed that when he burned charcoal in a closed vessel, the mass of the resulting ash was much less than that of the original charcoal.