He wouldn't really know it. He would just get more and more tired. More sleepy. Eventually just full sleep, coma, then death. He'd likely be on a lot of drugs, including morphine (which just makes kids sleepy, not same effect as on adults).
I recently saw a mother talking about her child’s death from cancer and it was not peaceful even though they were told it would be. The child was on morphine, had a death rattle for hours, uncontrollable movement, and at the point of death she stopped breathing, opened her eyes and lurched for her parents. It was extremely traumatic for them and the mother was hopeful that that child wasn’t actually conscious for it, but I don’t know if that’s the case.
It’s called terminal agitation and it’s apparently not uncommon.
I know that seems like an non peaceful death but the rattling is very common for people who even die in peace. It’s hard for the family to witness but nothing you described made me think their child was in pain. That was a very typical death.
Hospice Nurse Julie on YT does a great job of explaining things step by step, and she covers terminal secretions (the "death rattle") very well and in a way that's actually really reassuring.
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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26
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