[user104658]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Is it a comfortable death?

Depends on if you get hospital treatment. If you die on ventilator you most likely won't even know anything about it. If you can't access treatment/sedation I imagine it's not the most pleasant (breathing difficulties) but that said, respiratory and cardiovascular failure is one of the most common causes of "old age" death and always has been, so not really any different a death than a lot of people get.

I suppose the harsh truth is, unless you're under sedation there aren't many comfortable deaths. The image we like to have of old people slipping away in their sleep is sadly not that common. Both of my parents worked in elderly care (my mum was a ward sister in a private care home, my dad was a specialist dementia nurse) and weren't shy about telling me that most people aren't that lucky. When my own mum died she was filled to the eyeballs with morphine and sedation, which I'm quite thankful for.

So I guess the answer is, if you're sedated on ventilator it's a better death than most.

Sorry for the grim post .