KarinBe

Thanks so much for your answer! No I realised that he was dying, it's not that. What I want to know is if the Robinul can have these side effects, and if some of you have had these experiences.

Dear allnurses, My Dad died a week ago from pneumonia. He had a bit of mucus in the back of his throat the last hour or so, not too bad, but I rang the nurse and asked if there was anything that we could do in order to help him. She suggested to give him Robinul (I live in Sweden, so don't know the name for this in English). I asked if there was anything like morphine in it, since I have a big trauma with my Mum's death some years ago with morphine. No, not at all said the nurse, and I felt calm. Dad got the injection and died 30 min later.. I read later on that this Robinul given to dry out mucus, can cause irregular heartbeat!! We were waiting for my brother to come, and now I feel this injection caused my dad's death there and then and so father and son never got the chance to say goodbye:( Does anyone know about these kind of medicaments??

Thanks so much for your reply, qualitynurse56! No, I'm not a nurse.Yes, I've read that it is given for breathing difficulties. I saw that she got a little calmer after the first injection and it eased the breathing a little but the rate was just the same. I was so afraid and her breathing scared me so and I thought that maybe she needed some more.I did not understand that it could cause a breathing depression in the meaning that the patient could just stop breathing. She did not have secretations, only a loud and noisy tachypnea, her chest was moving in and out very fast. I am so sorry that I rang the nurse again.

Thank you, heron. Yes, exactly, I´m concerned that the meds hastened her death. I suspect she got too much morphine and sedatives which caused a breathing depression.

Thank you, heron.But the carbonic acid don't get lower when you are end-stage, right? Isn't the oxygen getting lower and lower until you die because the organs shut down? For how long can they continue to breath that fast?!

I also did not know that morphine could cause breathing depression.The nurse did not inform me:(

Thanks so much, notanumber. Yes, I only think the nurse wouldn´t have given that second injection.It just made it harder for my Mom, it was I, a panicking daughter, that could have used some reassurance and comfort:(... How long can they stay that tachypneic, like Kussmaul´s? What is the most common? My Mom was breathing like that for 9 hours. Thank you.

No she wasn't. I think her fast and shallow( labored?) breathing( through nose) must have looked like Kussmaul's, but she wasn't diabetic. I understand now that the second injection was lethal for her, she couldn't keep up the pace and from I understand, the morphine made her breathing more difficult. I can' believe that the nurse didn't understand this!

Thanks so much everyone for your posts. But the thing is I don't think my Mom was that close, she was very alerte and awake, it was only her breathing that was very fast. I don't even think she was in pain but of course the laboured breathing must have been hard for her. I was a fool to think I could change her breathing and by that help her! it was just a normal active dying process and I so wish the nurse would have told me that:(

Thank you so much. But the breathing had NO pauses, only rapid and regular for several hours. What is the hardest to carry, is that she tried to show me that she didn' want to have that second injection, I saw that but didn' take notice, thinking the nurse knew what was best...

Thank you so much, Nascar nurse, for your answer! I have done that, and will again. Even if you can not give medical advice, could you tell me something about that type of breathing?

Dear all nurses, I´m writing this from Sweden so please excuse my sometimes broken English.. I really need your opinion on this: A couple of years ago my beloved Mother who lived in a nursing home since she had her stroke 15 years earlier, died. She got pneumonia and didn´t respond to the antibiotics they gave her. I feel a tremendous guilt over her passing. The last evening she got this rapid breathing, and when I sat down by her bedside at 12 that night it had gotten worse, deep and fast, up to 50 breathes per minute I think. She was totally alerte and awake though. After an hour or so I rang the nurse, she came and gave her an injection of 7.5 mg Morphine-scopolamine plus 5 mg Stesolide( sorry don´t know the names of these meds in English). I think when I look back that it helped a little, but the breathing was still very fast and deep. I felt so helpless and it was so hard watching her breath like that and I rang the bell again 30 minutes later. I blame myself so much for this..I asked the nurse if she could have a little more since the breathing was still heavy.The nurse said yes and gave her another injection of what I later understood was the same dosis. Two hours later my Mom was dead. When I later ask for her medical journal, the last dosis wasn´t there! They hade erased it and this can only be interpreted as they had made a mistake. I blame myself for not fully understanding the side effects of Morphine and I knew that it had to be 4 hours between the doses, but I guess I panicked. I would be so grateful for any comment or opinion on this. Thank you. Kind regards Karin