הגדרה רפואית של גוסס הלכתי

The “classic” Goses can hardly be found today in modern hospitals.

In the past, patients with heart failure and lung congestion were breathing loudly and there breathing was called: “Chest breathing” and a person in that condition was called “Goses”, which meant that he has that chest breathing.

Practically most patients with that condition died within 72 hours (3 days), and only a minority of them survived. Today, with the use of diuretics and cardiac medications this situation is reversible in most cases. Therefore the old signs of Goses are irrelevant today. But, where a terminal patient is at a stage of dying, unconscious and his death suppose to come within less than 72 hours, than the vales of Goses should apply.