text: i would like to know what the death rattle is and what it sounds like? i have heard it is a noise that comes before death. does it happen to everyone and what exactly does it sound like? it comes with chenye-stokes breathing which happens as a person is dying. they take little gasps of air then there is a long pause then another attempt to breath followed by another pause and so on until they stop. the secretions gather in the throat and when they try to breath it makes a rattling sound.  it doesn't happen to everyone. i was having a conversation with a patient one day when all of a sudden her eyes rolled back in her head and she went white. she was dead within a few seconds. she died of a pulmonary embolism.