Suffocation

“ He had evidently died of suffocation, having reached a portion of the chimney where he could neither descend further nor work his way up again, and had there miserably perished; being literally choked by the soot and lime, of which he had inhaled such quantities in his fruitless struggles and painful gaspings, that his foam-covered mouth and bloodshot eyes were quite filled with them. ”

“ As the night advanced, the heat became intolerable, and a sense of suffocation, the most painful of any to which our frail nature can be exposed, seemed to threaten an excruciating, if not an immediate death. ”

“ I sat, writhing under the spasmodic action of suffocation, my eyes fixed in the sockets, my brain swimming, and a burning sensation, like that which attends a paroxysm of brain fever, shooting through the recesses of thought. The recollection of that [Pg 72] moment is even yet madness. The bell was almost dark, and the green light that came through the yolks of glass, fell faintly on the blue swollen faces of my companions, who I thought were dead. I had still power to observe that there was a new feature rising in that unprecedented situation of man's sufferings. ”

“ Sometimes when suffocation seemed imminent I have sprung suddenly to my feet with a shout, and a kick or a blow that purposely fell short, and the stampede that ensued would wholly clear the vicinity for a hundred yards around in scarcely the time it takes to draw a long breath. ”

“ One halted now without orders because one must, mules lay down and let the sound of the bell grow faint, all along the line the men were coughing. If one made a false step and stumbled, one immediately caught one’s breath and had a fit of semi-suffocation. Then, as soon as one was able to breathe again, a sort of despairing drowsiness possessed one; a weak recoil both of mind and body urged one to move no more, to escape at all hazards the anguish of further effort, to close one’s eyes, lie down, and forget the odious impossible task. ”

“ This death is a real suffocation; the lungs being empty are convulsed, the circulation disordered, and the whole mass of blood driven by the heat toward the head and breast; whence that hæmorrhage at the nose and mouth which happens after death. ”

“ Briefly to conclude what we have to say of suffocation, let us treat of Lightning. When a person has been struck by lightning, there is a general paleness of the whole body, with the exception of the part struck, which is often blackened, or even scorched.—Treatment. ”

“ Death from Asphyxia.—Among the forms of violent death due to this cause are drowning, hanging, strangulation, garotting, smothering, suffocation from choking, mechanical interference with the expansion of the chest walls, as when persons are crushed together during a panic in a fire, breathing poisonous gases, such as carbonic acid or carbonic oxide. ”

“ Death usually resulted from the fall of the man from the platform, scaffold, hill, or other elevation from which he was hurled. It was really a process of neck-breaking, instead of stoning, as burning was a process of suffocation, instead of consuming with fire. ”

“ Suffocation.—Treatment.—If the person is found hanging, he should be at once cut down and artificial respiration employed, as in drowning. If the suffocation results from articles of food blocking up the throat, the treatment recommended in choking must be had recourse to. Should the suffocation be the result of breathing coal-gas or sewer-gas, or by being in a room in which charcoal has been burnt, get the patient into the fresh air as speedily as possible, dash cold water in the face, and then perform artificial respiration. ”

“ That Suffocation, which is the Effect of a sanguineous Fulness and Obstruction, may be distinguished by its attacking strong, vigorous, sanguine Persons, who are great Eaters, using much juicy nutritious Food, and strong Wine and Liquors, and who frequently eat and inflame themselves; and when the Fit has come on after any inflaming Cause; when the Pulse is full and strong, and the Countenance red. ”

“ Suicide and accidental death from these causes are still more common.
Drowning is thought to produce death occasionally by the suddenness of the shock causing suspension of the functions of circulation and respiration—by shock without a struggle. The usual mode of death appears, however, to be by the circulation of unoxygenated blood through the brain acting as a poison upon that organ; and this is attended with all the phenomena of asphyxia, as in suffocation. ”

“ Death, sometimes ascribed to strangulation, is probably the result of suffocation, and happens thus: any pressure exerted on the cord cuts off the blood from the placenta to the fœtus, and gives rise to respiratory attempts on the part of the child, the child dying from suffocation, or from the engorgement of the lungs with liquor amnii drawn into them at every effort to breathe. ”

“ Hanging, drowning, shooting, cut throat and other wounds, falls from a height, placing the body in the path of railway trains and other vehicles, poison, and suffocation by want of air, or poisonous gases. ”

“ From these and other recorded cases, the symptoms seem generally to be a quick pulse, fainting or collapse, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, slow respiration, and death, as a rule sudden and unexpected. We may suppose that the sudden death is really due to a rapid paralysis of the respiration, and suffocation. ”

“ Death by drowning and death by suffocation, both threaten constantly, and each is held off, one by the air, and the other by the continual supply of fresh air. The man's ability to work and his very life depend upon the uninterrupted connection with the fresh air above. ”

“ Very little suffices for an obstruction in such cases, which may extinguish life. Hundreds, perhaps we may say thousands of persons die prematurely from suffocation during sleep, in a low condition of the vital energies. ”

“ Very many women begin to notice the change by feelings of suffocation, flashes as of hot steam, alternating with a slight chilly feeling. If at any time perspiration is free, it should be encouraged rather than suppressed. It is better to endure the hot feelings and save the lungs, than to expose them by inhaling cold air through the tubes, or driving the perspiration in on to them. Fanning, 134rushing into cold air, drinking ice-water, all tends to throw the danger internally, inducing paralysis. When the feeling of suffocation comes on, it is decidedly best to sit quiet. ”

“ The heart, moreover, continues to contract after the lungs have ceased to perform their duty. Death is thus due to apnœa—that is, death beginning at the lungs—and not to syncope. Death in some cases is from neuro-paralysis or nervous apoplexy. In death by shock, which in most cases is instantaneous, both sides of the heart are equally filled. Death, the result of disease, may present all the signs of death from suffocation, and no suspicion may be aroused as to the cause of death from the post-mortem appearances, especially if putrefaction have set in. ”

“ I have stolen breath In a stalk of fennel! You shall scratch and you shall whine Many a night, and you shall worry Many a bone, before you bury One sweet bone of mine! When shall I be dead? When my flesh is withered, And above my head Yellow pollen gathered All the empty afternoon? When sweet lovers pause and wonder Who am I that lie thereunder, Hidden from the moon? This my personal death?— That lungs be failing To inhale the breath Others are exhaling? This my subtle spirit's end?— Ah, when the thawed winter splashes Over these chance dust and ashes, Weep not me, my friend! ”

“ For there are living apparitions that affect men more deeply than fancied visits from the world of ghosts;—numbing respiration momentarily, making the blood to gather about the heart like a great weight, hushing the voice to a murmur, creating an indescribable oppression in the throat—until nature seeks relief in a strong sigh that fills the lungs with air again and cools for a brief moment the sudden fever of the veins. ”

“ One little drop flowing through your heart; a vein bursting in your breast; a suffocating cold in the throat, a violent rush of blood, a fever, a wound, a flash of lightning, is enough to deprive you of life. Death will come to you when you least expect it. ”

“ EVERY one has tried the experiment of "holding the breath," and has found that after the lapse of a minute, or a minute and a half at the farthest, there supervenes a most peculiar and intolerable kind of anguish. Nature then takes the management of the lungs out of our hands into hers, and we breathe in spite of ourselves. The distress felt at such times we think of when we read of a death by drowning or hanging; and, although it has been asserted over and over again that such a death is painless, hardly any one really believes it. ”

“ The violence of the paroxysm often tarns the color of the face into a livid purple, the throbbing of the heart becomes spasmodic, but, when the hopes of the sufferer are almost reduced to the supposed euthanasia of strangulation, the rigor suddenly relaxes, a deep gasp fills the lungs to their very bottom, and a few minutes after the breathing becomes quiet and regular, and only a cold perspiration reminds the patient that he has passed through the chill shadow of death. ”

“ Should I, I pondered, in such a dark hour, have the strength of mind or grace of God to lie still on my bed and let the rising water cut short the prayer on my lips, or, hoping against hope, with angrily raging heart die fighting to breathe a few seconds longer the vital air? Of a truth, to die suffocated in the darkness, without a last look at the great vault of heaven, a last breath of the pure air, seemed to me to be to doubly die. ”

“ And then I stretch out my legs until my feet reach the end of the coffin, nestle my head amid the flowers, and make ready to enjoy my great peace with all my might. I am not in the least frightened or confounded, for I know that air to breathe will never again be lacking now for I need it no longer. I am dead, properly and honestly dead. Nothing remains now but to flow peacefully and gently into the realm of the unconscious, and to let the dim dream of the All surge over me to eternity. ”

“ I knew that if once I let my breath go I would be drowned, merely by the spasmodic action of my lungs trying to recover air. I felt as if I should burst. It was a match against time, with life or death as the stake. ”

“ When I put my hand on her, my heart beats with a passion of fear and ecstasy, for I touch my own passing away, my own ceasing-to-be, I apprehend my own consummation in a darkness which obliterates me in its infinity. My veins rock as if they were being destroyed, the blood takes fire on the edge of oblivion, and beats backward and forward. ”

“ It is only a dirge for the dead.
—How your flesh creeps, as the fearfully solemn tones fall on your ears. How icy cold is the blood in your veins—and yet the beaded drops of perspiration stand upon your temples, and in your palms! How stoutly you struggle to feel that you still have your senses; and yet, in your strong agony, you fiercely bite your lip through and through, and know it not. ”

“ Death roams in cities' smoke, and in still night,
When men sleep in their beds, walketh about!
How many in walled cities lie and groan,
Turning themselves upon their beds,
Talking with death, answering his hard demands!
How many walk in darkness, terrors are round
The curtains of their beds, destruction is
Ready at the door! How many sleep
In earth, cover'd with stones and deathy dust,
Resting in quietness, whose spirits walk
Upon the clouds of heaven, to die no more!
Yet death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings. ”

“ With the coffin lying black and full the other side the wall;
And "YOU warm my heart," I told him, "if there's any fire in men!"
And he got his two arms round me, and I felt the fire then.
And I warmed my heart at the fire. ”

“ A breath disturbs the balance; and that scale
In which we throw our hearts preponderates,
And the other, like an empty one, flies up,
And is accounted vanity and air!
To me the thought of death is terrible,
Having such hold on life. To thee it is not
So much even as the lifting of a latch;
Only a step into the open air
Out of a tent already luminous
With light that shines through its transparent walls! ”

“ Perhaps it was only the shrill sound of the wind through the leafless bushes; for the wind has at times the knack of whistling like a human being.
She again advanced a step or two towards the hearth; and as she did so, she stumbled on something. She uttered a low, muffled cry as she almost fell. On what had her foot caught? She bent down, and felt with her hand. It seemed like the corpse of a man stretched out at full length—a human creature wallowing in his own blood. A sickening sense of fear, a feeling of faintness, came over her. She hardly dared to move. ”

“ This mortal air is one wide pestilence, that kills us all at last. Whom the Death-cloud spares, sleeping, dies in silent watches of the night. He whom the spears of many battles could not slay, dies of a grape-stone, beneath the vine-clad bower he built, to shade declining years. We die, because we live. ”

“ Tell the person he is suffocating in water, and he will suffocate, unless you prevent him. Tell him he is struck on the head, and he falls, as if stricken down with a hammer. No doubt a subject might be killed by a mental impression—by saying to him he was shot through the heart, or was struggling in water. ”

“ I fought to wrest my mouth from this awful Thing that sealed it, but, if ever I succeeded and caught a single breath, the wet, sucking mass closed over my face again before I could cry out. I think I fought for hours, desperately, insanely, in a silence that was more hideous than any sound,—fought until I felt final death at hand, until the memory of all my life rushed over me like a flood, until I no longer had strength to wrench my face from that hellish succubus, until with a last mechanical struggle I fell and yielded to death. ”