

A Simple Passing
He struggled to breathe, progressing from deep breaths with wet sounds reverberating in his lungs, to guppy breathing — opening the mouth like a fish, contorting the entire face. His heart rate slowly decreased, from 150 beats a minute — a pace attempting to keep up with the oxygen demands of the body — to 50 beats to 40 beats to that which is incompatible with life. The nurse pushed a tiny dose of morphine to ease the air hunger, the sensation we experience as the brain beco