Deaths by gaging occur in cases of robbery or kidnapping,where a peice of cloth or an adhesive plaster is tied around the mouth and nose. This is usually associated with tieing up of hands and legs and occasionally blind folding the eyes. The aim is to prevent the victim from screaming for help,escape and seeing the assailent.
Gaging interfere with respiration and the act of swallowing. The victim,espicially the elderly and those with respiratory problems,is unable to clear his air way from secretions either by swallowing or expectoration and the victim is drowned in his own secretions.
Such deaths are not intended or antisipated by the assailants in most cases.