14 Common Causes of Agonal Breathing

2. Hemorrhagic stroke

The term stroke is used to refer to a lack — either partial or total — of blood flow to the brain. There are quite a few types of strokes and each of them can be potentially deadly. Hemorrhagic strokes specifically are strokes in which a blood vessel in the brain ruptures thus cutting off the flow of blood.

Before you panic and worry that your brain is going to start bleeding tomorrow, try to keep in mind that only 13% of strokes are hemorrhagic with the majority being ischemic. Hemorrhagic strokes usually totally — or near-totally — cut off the supply of blood to your brain.

This is why it leads to agonal breathing. Your brain is doing everything it can to try to save your body, and gasping is a last-ditch effort to get more oxygen in the bloodstream and to the brain. 1 in 4 hemorrhagic stroke patients survive.