Sounds like respiratory trouble in the chest (6)
I believe the answer is:
coffin
'chest' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'sounds like respiratory trouble in' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'in' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'coff' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for coffin that I've seen before include "Casket for a corpse" , "Sarcophagus" , "Box for burial" , "Body box" , "Box for a corpse" .)