Unfortunately my father died two weeks ago. He was in hospital following a period of illness. Unbeknown to doctors he had been suffering from endocarditis (he had a prosthetic valve in 1981). Despite starting a course of antibiotics too much damage appears to have been done causing aortic stenosis (this is the cause of death on the death certificate) and heart failure. Whilst being ill for a while he deteriorated very quickly on the last day. In the morning he was having difficulty breathing and was transferred from the ward into the cardiac care unit. I am not quite sure what happened next as no one has really been able to tell us what happened. In the morning he had been able to talk to my mother despite having an oxygen mask and difficulty breathing. At some point he appears to have lost consciousness. We spent from 2pm until he died at just before 10pm with him. Throughout this time he was unable to communicate with us and showed no signs that he was aware of anything. He was heavily sedated with morphine which may be responsible for this. He did however have his eyes wide open although they were not focusing on anything and again did not show signs of responding to any stimuli. Through this period he did experience 3 episodes where he would stop breathing and then he would sit up and he would go purple his eyes would roll back and he would let out a horrific groan. This lasted for about a minute after which he returned to the same state as before. I would be really grateful if someone could explain what happened in these final few hours and what the episodes were and if he felt any of them. I would also be grateful for any information that people could provide on whether they think he was aware of what was going on.