A
death rattle is a gurgling or rattle-like noise produced shortly before or after death by the accumulation of excessive respiratory secretions in the
throatIn anatomy, the throat is the anterior part of the neck, in front of the vertebral column. It consists of the pharynx and larynx. An important feature of the throat is the epiglottis, a flap which separates the esophagus from the trachea and prevents inhalation of food or drink.The throat...
. Those who are
dyingDeath is the termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby. The true nature of the latter has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical...
may lose their ability to
swallowSwallowing, known scientifically as deglutition, is the process in the human or animal body that makes something pass from the mouth, to the pharynx, into the esophagus, with the shutting of the epiglottis. If this fails and the object goes through the trachea, then choking or pulmonary aspiration...
, resulting in such an accumulation. While death rattle is a strong indication that someone is near death, it can also be produced by other problems that cause interference with the swallowing reflex, for instance,
brain injuriesTraumatic brain injury occurs when an outside force traumatically injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism , or other features...
.
It is sometimes misinterpreted as the sound of the person
chokingChoking is the mechanical obstruction of the flow of air from the environment into the lungs. Choking prevents breathing, and can be partial or complete, with partial choking allowing some,although inadequate, flow of air into the lungs...
to death.
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A
death rattle is a gurgling or rattle-like noise produced shortly before or after death by the accumulation of excessive respiratory secretions in the
throatIn anatomy, the throat is the anterior part of the neck, in front of the vertebral column. It consists of the pharynx and larynx. An important feature of the throat is the epiglottis, a flap which separates the esophagus from the trachea and prevents inhalation of food or drink.The throat...
. Those who are
dyingDeath is the termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby. The true nature of the latter has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical...
may lose their ability to
swallowSwallowing, known scientifically as deglutition, is the process in the human or animal body that makes something pass from the mouth, to the pharynx, into the esophagus, with the shutting of the epiglottis. If this fails and the object goes through the trachea, then choking or pulmonary aspiration...
, resulting in such an accumulation. While death rattle is a strong indication that someone is near death, it can also be produced by other problems that cause interference with the swallowing reflex, for instance,
brain injuriesTraumatic brain injury occurs when an outside force traumatically injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism , or other features...
.
It is sometimes misinterpreted as the sound of the person
chokingChoking is the mechanical obstruction of the flow of air from the environment into the lungs. Choking prevents breathing, and can be partial or complete, with partial choking allowing some,although inadequate, flow of air into the lungs...
to death. In terminal care, drugs such as glycopyrronium, hyoscine hydrobromide or
atropineAtropine is a tropane alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade , jimsonweed , mandrake and other plants of the family Solanaceae. It is a secondary metabolite of these plants and serves as a drug with a wide variety of effects. It is a competitive antagonist for the muscarinic acetylcholine...
may be used to reduce secretions and minimize this effect.
Death rattle may also be used to refer to machines. A machine (usually an engine) with death rattle typically suffers from a spun bearing or other major mechanical failure, causing it to make unusual noises.
Literary use
Widespread understanding of the significance of the death rattle has led to its common use in literature.
- She sank more and more into uneasy delirium. At times she shuddered, turned her eyes from side to side, recognised everyone for a minute, but at once sank into delirium again. Her breathing was hoarse and difficult, there was a sort of rattle in her throat.
-
- — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer, essayist and philosopher, known for...
, Crime and PunishmentCrime and Punishment is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky that was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments in 1866. It was later published in a single volume...
- In common parlance we call it a "death rattle." It is one of those terms that through use has passed into the realm of fantasy so that many no longer believe it is an actual biological phenomenon. In fact, it is. Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
experts tell us that the death rattle is the result of involuntary spasms in the vocal box brought on by the increased acidity in the blood following death. The noise itself is alternately described as a loud bark or whooping rasp emitted by a victim sometime after death.
-
- — Steve Martini
Steve Martini is an American writer of legal novels and is best known for The Judge and Undue Influence.- Biography :Martini was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in the Bay Area and Southern California...
, The JudgeJudge was a weekly magazine published in the United States of America between 1881 and 1947. It was formed in 1881 by artists who had seceded from Puck Magazine. The founders included:*James Albert Wales, a cartoonist...
- "If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business."
- — Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist...
,
WaldenWalden by Henry David Thoreau is an American classic. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, and manual for self reliance....
- Presently his fingers began to pick busily at the coverlet, and by that sign I knew that his end was at hand. With the first suggestion of the death rattle in his throat he started up slightly, and seemed to listen; then he said:
- "A bugle?...It is the king! The drawbridge, there! Man the battlements!—turn out the—"
- He was getting up his last "effect"; but he never finished it.
- — Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's CourtA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. Some early editions are entitled A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.-Introduction to the "stranger":...
.
- "Next morning, around six o'clock, the servant entered the room with a candle. He found his master lying on the floor, the pistol beside him, and blood everywhere. He called, he touched him; no answer came, only a rattling in the throat."
- — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and polymath. Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust...
, "The Sorrows of Young WertherThe Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary and loosely autobiographical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774; a revised edition of the novel was published in 1787...
"
- "Life, like a child, laughs, shaking its rattle of death as it runs."
- — Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
- "I think I may have dropped off into a light sleep, but my senses were still wide awake and I suddenly startled into intense consciousness by a hurried, angry sound, the most awe-inspiring sound anyone can hear, the Death Rattle."
- — W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer...
"The Razor's EdgeThe Razor’s Edge is a book by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1944. Its epigraph reads, "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard." —Katha-Upanishad....
"
- "...but the baby's crying, and its death rattle were heard, and they were discovered."
- — Wladyslaw Szpilman
Władysław “Władek” Szpilman was a Jewish-Polish pianist, composer, and memoirist. Szpilman is widely known as the protagonist of the Roman Polański film The Pianist, which is based on his autobiographical book recounting how he survived the Holocaust...
"The PianistThe Pianist is a memoir written by the Polish musician of Jewish origins Władysław Szpilman. He tells how he survived the German deportations of Jews to extermination camps, the 1943 destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising during World War II.Szpilman wrote his memoir in...
"
Uses in music
- "Death Rattle" is a song by metal band Pantera
Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul and "Dimebag" Darrell , then known as Diamond Darrell, in 1981. Bassist Rex Brown then known as Rex Rocker would join in 1982, with vocalist Terry Glaze...
off of their Reinventing the SteelReinventing the Steel is the ninth and final studio album by heavy metal band Pantera. It was released through East West Records, on March 14, 2000.-Album information:...
album.
- In the band Tool
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1990. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. The current bassist is Justin Chancellor, who has been with the band since 1995...
's 2006 single "Vicarious", the lyrics say "Stare at the transmitter/Sing to the death rattle."
- In Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969....
's "Aqualung", Ian AndersonIan Scott Anderson, MBE is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock band Jethro Tull.-Early life:...
sings: "And you snatch your rattling last breaths with deep-sea-diver sounds..."
- Comedian David Cross
David Cross is an American comedian, writer, and actor.-Early life:Cross was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Susi, a computer retailer. Six months later, Cross' family moved to Florida. After additional moves to New York and Connecticut, the family settled back in Roswell, Georgia, where...
quipped in his 2004 stand up comedy album, It's Not FunnyIt's Not Funny is David Cross' 2004 stand-up comedy album, released on Sub Pop Records. The track titles, like those on his previous record Shut Up You Fucking Baby!, have no relevance to the bits Cross does on the album and are instead there to make fun of material performed by other comedians,...
, that he would "rather hear the death rattle of my only child" than listen to CreedCreed is an American rock band from Tallahassee, Florida that became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The band disbanded in 2004 after three multi-platinum albums, selling an estimated 35 million records worldwide, including 26 million records in the United States alone...
.
- The Hole
Hole was a Grammy-nominated American alternative rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1989 and disbanded in 2002. The band was fronted by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson. Hole achieved considerable commercial success...
song "Plump" includes the line "He shakes his death rattle / Spittle on his bib."
- The Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson and Joseph Jackson may refer to:* Joe Jackson , English musician* Joseph Jackson , father and manager of The Jackson 5* Joe Jackson , American football player...
song "Down to London" contains the following lyric: "stop, what's that sound, it's the death rattle of this rusty old town."
- The Pinback
Pinback is an indie rock band from San Diego, California, currently signed to Temporary Residence Ltd.. The band was formed in 1998 by singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. The band has two drummers that switch off and on, Chris Prescott, and Tom...
song "Shag" includes the line "Rusty spring uncoils in a baby bottle / Toddler screams overpower the infant death rattle."
Uses in film and television
- In the The Grudge trilogy of films, the cursed Kayako Saeki
Kayako Saeki is a fictional character from the Ju-on series of Japanese-horror movies and The Grudge trilogy of American remakes. In all of the films, except for the third, she is played by actress Takako Fuji. In The Grudge 3, Kayako is played by Aiko Horiuchi, Fuji having turned down the role...
makes death rattle-like sounds while she haunts her victims.
- In Red vs Blue, the machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time three-dimensional graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation. The term also refers to works that incorporate this animation technique...
series by Rooster Teeth ProductionsRooster Teeth Productions is a production group from Austin, Texas that specializes in the creation of live action shorts and machinima, or films created using real-time, interactive engines from computer and video games. The name Rooster Teeth is a euphemism for Cockbite, an insult used in one of...
, the death rattle is almost always used whenever a character dies, and is performed in a very distinctive way. Since all the characters are portrayed by video game avatars, and are only capable of limited types of movements and almost no visual expressions, the death rattle is needed to indicate that a character has actually died and isn't simply lying down or unconscious.
- The character Marla Singer in Fight Club
Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The book follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. The insomnia is aggravated by frequent business travel and an apparent boredom with his comfortable lifestyle...
asks the narrator if he wants to stay on the phone and listen to her death rattle after she attempts to commit suicide.
- In The Pianist
The Pianist is a 2002 film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman...
a Jewish woman crying "Why did I do it?" was explained to have been hiding from the Nazis during the clearing of the ghettoOriginally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live, a ghetto is now described as a "portion of a city in which members of a minority group live; especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure." - Etymology :...
with her baby. Her baby began to cry, she smothered it to avoid detection, but was found because the soldiers heard the death rattle.
- When a murder victim suddenly gurgles in the second episode of Dexter
Dexter is an American television drama series that airs on the premium channel Showtime. Set in Miami, the series centers on Dexter Morgan , a covert serial killer governed by a strict moral code who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst.The show is based on...
, a medic is called over and informs Dexter and a detective that it is simply a death rattle.
- In the online game Urban Dead
Urban Dead is an HTML/text-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by Kevan Davis. Set in a quarantined region of the fictional city of Malton, it deals with the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. Players enter the game either as a human survivor or a zombie, each with different...
, death rattle is a skill which may be purchased by zombieA zombie is a creature that appears in folklore and popular culture typically as a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful sorcerer...
players, and allows the zombie limited speech with others possessing the skill.
- In the season six finale of CSI Miami the victim, Manny Ortega, exerts a death rattle just after being shot to death and leads the medical examiner to call for fire & rescue believing the victim might still be alive.
- In the Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British television situation comedy franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following. It was created by, and the first six series were written by, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor...
episode "Dimension JumpDimension Jump may refer to:* "Dimension Jump" * Dimension Jump...
" when Arnold RimmerArnold Judas Rimmer B.S.C., S.S.C. is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
suggests to crewmate Dave ListerDavid "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
that they listen to Hammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard...
music, Lister replies that he'd prefer "something slightly more melodious, like the long, drawn-out death rattle of a man suffering from terminal flatulence."
- In the NCIS
NCIS may refer to:* National Criminal Intelligence Service, the predecessor to SOCA, Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency* Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a U.S. law enforcement agency that investigates crimes in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps...
episode Hung Out to dry, a witness to the murder believes he heard a death rattle.
- In an episode of Duckman
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man is an animated sitcom that aired from 1994-1997, created by Everett Peck and developed by Peck, Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn. The sitcom was based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Horse comic...
entitled "Married Alive," after Aunt Bernice sings, Duckman comments "Any chance that was a death rattle?"
- In the Movie "Feast (2005)," the Boss Man describes Jason Mewes after death body twitch as a 'death rattle.'
- In the 2009 film Zombieland
Zombieland is a American zombie comedy horror film, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben Fleischer. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse...
, an extended death rattle by actor Bill MurrayWilliam James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live, and went on to star in films including Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.-Early years:Murray, the fifth...
, portraying himself, is utilized for comedic effect.
External links