Symptoms of respiratory failure before death

Respiratory failure is a very serious disorder of ventilation function. There are many causative factors. Respiratory tract lesions, pulmonary vascular diseases, lung tissue lesions, etc. can all lead to respiratory failure. If respiratory failure is not effectively controlled and treated, the condition will become more and more serious and may even lead to the death of the patient, which makes many family members very nervous. So, what are the symptoms before death from respiratory failure? Let’s take a look below.

Respiratory failure is a serious disorder of pulmonary ventilation and/or gas exchange caused by various reasons, resulting in inability to carry out effective gas exchange, leading to hypoxia with (or without) carbon dioxide retention, and thus causing a clinical syndrome of a series of physiological function and metabolic disorders.

In addition to the symptoms of the primary disease, the main manifestations are hypoxia and carbon dioxide retention, such as dyspnea, shortness of breath, mental and neurological symptoms, etc. When complicated by pulmonary encephalopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding may also occur.

End-of-life care methods for patients with respiratory failure: 1. Provide a comfortable environment. Create a clean, comfortable, spacious, bright, sunny, and well-ventilated ward for patients. Keep the bed sheets clean, and the indoor pipes soft. Avoid strong direct sunlight to make patients feel comfortable and warm. Wear a comfortable, loose-fitting cotton cardigan. In the ward, you can play music that is calming and warm to soothe people. Encourage the patient's family and friends to spend more time with the patient and provide spiritual support and care. Alleviate the patient's fear of death and loneliness, tell him that he is not lonely, and let him leave the world in a peaceful and fearless state. It is recommended that hospitals set up hospice wards, and the medical staff in the wards should be selected and professionally trained to better care for patients and their families.

2 Provide psychological care 2.1 Fear: Patients often have terrible fear and pessimism. For patients in the late stage of respiratory failure, death education should be provided to make them understand that death is a stage that everyone must go through, which is inevitable and cannot be changed. When death is approaching, they should maintain a calm and cheerful attitude towards life. This is also an important purpose of our death education for patients [3]. Let the patient maintain a calm and positive attitude, adopt protective and analytical psychological care, communicate with the patient in a kind and patient manner, sincerely ask the patient's family to accompany him or her, eliminate the patient's fear, and face death in the best condition, which can improve the quality of life in the dying stage. While the nursing staff is operating, the nurse can accompany the patient, hold the patient's hand, or touch the patient's head to encourage the patient and eliminate his or her loneliness. Communicate more with the patient's family and meet the patient's end-of-life demands. Try to understand the patient's out-of-control behavior, and guide family members to take care of the patient and spend more time with the patient. Notify relatives and friends in a timely manner when the patient is dying, and cooperate in various follow-up work. On the other hand, we must listen to the inner feelings and thoughts of the patient's family, help them maintain a normal state, understand and help them, and make the family analyze and realize that the patient's death is a reality that must be faced and has no direct connection with the family's expectations and efforts. On the basis of full psychological preparation, we must actively cooperate with medical staff to complete the patient's hospice care, so that the patient can have a "good death" and the family can be comforted. 2.2 Despair: As the disease progresses, the patient cannot bear the torture of the disease and develops suicidal thoughts. Therefore, nursing staff should show deep sympathy and understanding for the patient's situation, communicate with the patient frequently, guide the patient to correctly treat life, disease, and death, eliminate whispering thoughts, keep the patient emotionally stable, give him the confidence and courage to face death, and enable the patient to have a certain sense of security while reducing tension and fear. 2.3 Psychological recognition: The patient appears calm and peaceful, drowsy, lonely, and unwilling to talk to others. Do not force the patient at this time, and the condition should be closely observed. The companion can touch the patient's head and hold the patient's hands to provide spiritual comfort and support. 3. Daily care: Keep the patient's mouth and skin clean. Patients have insufficient intake, reduced salivary gland secretion, and fail to clear sputum promptly after coughing it up. They often experience dry mouth, excessive oral secretions, and sputum crusts, which can easily lead to periodontal disease and oral fungal infections. The patient is in the late stage of respiratory failure, with severe hypoxia and prone to sweating. It is necessary to remove sweat and change clothes in time. 4 Nursing for malnutrition Since respiratory failure is a high-consumption disease, patients’ insufficient intake will make them extremely weak. People with dysphagia should be given a nutritious, high-protein, high-calorie, high-vitamin, easily digestible nasogastric liquid diet and intravenous infusion of fat emulsion, amino acids and electrolyte fluids to ensure the patient's fluid volume and calories.

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