Wife hears her husband ‘snoring’ over their home camera. But when she gets home, she finds her life has forever changed

We’re well into the holidays, and Jamie Marsh just posted a sad story on her TikTok that she hopes will remind people to hug their loved ones a little tighter this season. Marsh also wants to raise awareness about a breathing problem that can sound a lot like snoring but may actually be an urgent warning to call paramedics.

On Aug. 23, Marsh recounted that she left her Florida home for work at 6:35 a.m. That was reportedly the last in-person conversation she had with her late husband, Chris, 52. When she got to work, she received a call from Chris saying he felt unwell and had blurry vision. He apparently decided to take a nap to see if that would help.

In a later interview with Newsweek, Marsh revealed that when she called her husband and he didn’t answer, she decided to check in using their in-house camera. Chris was off camera, but she didn’t see anything alarming. “I heard snoring through the WiFi camera. It seemed like he was sleeping,” she said. And as we know, ring cameras and similar devices catch almost anything in a home — but not everything.

After calling multiple times without a response, Marsh left work early and arrived home at 12:20 p.m. The snoring she had heard earlier was now gone. As soon as she walked into the pin-drop silence, she knew something was terribly wrong. She found Chris unresponsive and immediately ran to a neighbor for help.

Paramedics arrived shortly after, but despite 30 minutes of attempts to revive him, they pronounced him dead at the scene. When it comes to calling paramedics, time is often the deciding factor. Some people sadly die even after early calls, and others survive despite late ones, but it’s always best to get medical professionals on-site as soon as possible.

Later, police informed Marsh that the sound she heard through the camera — what she thought was snoring — was actually “agonal breathing.” This happens when someone isn’t getting enough oxygen. It can sound like extremely loud snoring, but it’s actually a natural reflex triggered during cardiac arrest or a stroke.

The Annals of Emergency Medicine has published studies showing that agonal breathing sometimes acts as an alarm and is associated with many lives being saved. Unfortunately, Marsh wasn’t home when her husband was exhibiting the symptoms and couldn’t physically check on him.

Marsh’s video has now amassed 5.9 million views on TikTok. She previously had a GoFundMe that helped her during the early stages of grieving, but she had to close it so she could move into a lower-income apartment — a ridiculous prerequisite, especially when someone recently raised $100,000 for their racist side quests.

Marsh said of Chris, “My fondest memories are how he took care of me. How much he loved me. All the things he’d do for me.” Chris is remembered by friends as the outdoorsy one in the group — always curious about nature and open about his love for animals, especially cats and snakes.