death-struggle

plural death-struggles

1. The final throes of bodily effort before dying; agony; death throes.

   There was a death-struggle, during which White Fang walked around, stiff-legged and observant.

   1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 3 (The Gods of the Wild), page 182

   1 more example

   "It will cure him if he be not dead. Swift, now! Swift! The man dies!" I glanced towards him; it was true enough, Leo was in his death-struggle.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC