Category:Slang for Patients
From Eurêka
Medical Slang for Patients
Patient Traditional term for a person subject to treatment by a doctor.
- Consumer (AmE) Person who is consuming a medical product, in the business of medicine.
- Client (AmE) Person under the protection of another; one who engages the professional advice or services of another, in a explicit business relationship.
• Client (Medicaid), Part 2
Player (AmE) Patient.
- Head (AmE) Brain-injury patient.
- Hit (AmE) New patient.
- LOL (AmE) Little old lady.
Note : There does not seem to be a male equivalent.
- Veteran (variant, Veteranoid) (AmE) Grizzled elderly patient, usually male, who has a great forbearance with testing and readily agrees to any procedures that are advised, reminiscent of the type of patent normally found in a VA hospital.
Dump (AmE) Patient whom no department in a hospital wants to take on.
- Dump (Turf) (AmE) v To pass an unwanted patient from one department to another.
- Bounce (AmE) Return of the patient to the original ward.
- Buff (AmE) Reason for which the patient has to be moved, the process preceding the turf.
Hit (AmE) Patient assigned to a resident.
Hospitalized (AmE) Referring to a patient who has become acclimatized to a hospital system.
- Hospitalitis (AmE) Patient’s irritability which occur during a long stay in hospital.
(alphabetical listing)
3P’s (= pill, permissiveness and promiscuity) Relates to female patients with sexually transmitted disease.
4F (= Fair, fat, female and forty) or, (= fat, forty-ish, flatulent female) Both mean abdominal pain patient who is candidate for gall bladder disease.
Appy Person with suspected appendicitis.
Banana (AmE) Patient with yellow jaundice.
Benny Patient on benefit (welfare payments).
Betty Patient with diabetes.
Blue bloater Fat patient suffering from emphysema whose skin turns blue.
Blue blower Patient with severe lung disease.
Bounceback Patient who keeps returning to the hospital.
Bungee jumper Patient who pulls on his catheter tube.
Chartomegaly Patient is so frequent s/he has a large (and growing) chart.
Cheerioma Patient with a highly aggressive, malignant tumour.
Choly (Chole) Patient with cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder).
Dangle (AmE) Said of a patient who sits on the edge of the bed and dangles his or her legs over the side.
FINE (= fucked up , insecure, neurotic and emotional)
FOL, GOL, FOS (= fat old Lady, gone off legs, full of shit) (Toxic confusional state) Confused elderly female, unable to exercise at home, now unable to move unaided and badly constipated as a result.
Fruit salad Group of stroke patients, all unable to take care of themselves.
Goldbrick Patient who demands more attention than their (minor) condition warrants.
High serum porcelain level Patient is a crock of shit.
Hospitalismo (Brazil) Revolving-door patient (in-and-out-and-in ....).
Lunger (AmE) Patient with obvious chronic lung disease.
- Blue blower (AmE) Patient with severe lung disease.
- Pink puffer (AmE) Patient breathing rapidly due to lung disease.
- Respondent Patient who depends upon any sort of artificial breathing aid.
NAD (= no apparent distress) Classic term for a patient in a state of well-being.
- WN/WD (= well nourished, well developed) Standard opening shorthand in any physical examination.
OAP (= over-anxious patient)
Player Complaining, irritating patient.
Poliesculhambado (Brazil) Multi-fucked-up patient.
PORG (= person of restricted/retarded growth) Dwarf/midget.
Rock Very stable patient.
Tachylordyosis (with the junctional Jesus) (AmE) Usually a middle-aged to older black female American with a complaint of “lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy,” occasionally with the interspersed “Jesus” i.e. “lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, Jesus help me, lordy, lordy.”
- Tachylawdia As above (variant spelling), but without the “Jesus.”
Malingering Patients Slang
(alphabetical listing)
AMF (= Adios Motherfucker) (AmE) Note for a malingering patient.
Dispo (= disposition problem) (AmE) Patient who is admitted to hospital with no actual medical problem other than he or she cannot look after themselves.
GMG (= Yiddish, gurnisht mit gurnisht = nothing with nothing) Notation in medical records of patients whose pains are considered illusory.
Hospital hobo (Hospital addict) (AmE) Medical slang for a patient suffering from Munchhausen's syndrome, touring hospitals asking for admission claiming imaginary illnesses.
- Bed plug Low-maintenance patient occupying bed that might otherwise be filled with a more difficult case.
- Bounceback (AmE) Patient who keeps returning to hospital, or a patient who gets better unexpectedly.
- Crock (AmE) Malingering patient with bogus complaints.
- Saturday Night Special (AmE) Patient, usually a derelict and/or alcoholic who turns up regularly on Saturday night trying to get admitted.
LOL in NAD (= little old lady in no apparent stress) (AmE, med slang) Any patients of either sex who are in hospital but without any immediate or critical physical problems.
Turkey (Gobbler) (AmE) Any patient with a trivial complaint, or is a malingerer. It also means a patient mishandled by the hospital.
Hypochondriacs Medical Slang
(alphabetical listing)
Crock (med slang) Hypochondriac.
Hippo (med slang) Hypochondriac or depressive.
Organ recital (med slang) Hypochondriac’s medical history.
Squirrel (med slang) Eccentric or hypochodriac ("squirrelly") patient who can make life difficult. Found in the phrase "squirrels get sick too" to remind staff that even eccentric patients may have a real medical problem.
Twitch (med slang) Hypochondriac.
Dumped Patients Slang
(alphabetical listing)
Pop drop (AmE) Families drop an elderly patient at the hospital so they can take a vacation.
Rocks (AmE) Patients not sick enough to be admitted to hospital, but whom the family refuses to take home.
Tail-light sign When a patient, usually elderly, is dropped off at an emergency room by relatives who drive away before an evaluation is complete, forcing the patient to be admitted to the hospital whether they need treatment or not.
Dim Patients Slang
(alphabetical listing)
45C Patient is one chromosome short of a full set (thick).
Acute pneumoencephalopathy Airhead.
CLL (= chronic low life)
Cranial rectosis (AmE) Butthead (idiot).
- Head-up-ass (BrE) Arrogant or arrogant fool.
DMFNFL (= dumb mother fucker, not fit to live).
DSP (= dumb shit profile)
Dude Factor Survival scoring factor based on social worth.
- High dude factor Individual of questionable social worth who survives near-fatal injuries.
- Low dude factor Professional person who slips in the bathroom sustaining a fatal injury.
Dys-Synaptogenic Stupid.
Faecal encephalopathy Shit for brains.
Lignocephalic Wooden-headed. i.e. dense [thick] or stubborn.
LMC (= low marble count) Low IQ.
LOBNH (= lights on but nobody home)
Microdeckia (micro = small; deck = deck of cards) Patient playing with less that a full deck (low IQ).
Mononeuronis asynapsis Thick, one neuron, not connected.
NARS (= not a rocket scientist) Low IQ.
NQR (= not quite right)
NQRITH (= not quite right in the head)
Oligoneuronal Few brain cells, thick, not very bright.
Osteocephaly Boneheaded.
Paperweight (NzE) Very small patient with severe congenital mental retardation.
Pneumo-cephalic Airhead.
PPA (= Practicing Professional Alcoholic)
Pumpkin positive Penlight shone into the patient's mouth/ear would encounter a brain so small that the whole head would light up.
Stupidity Panel Lab test (for patient stupidity) that, when invented, will earns its inventor a fortune, thus a thick patient.
TSL (To Stupid to Live)
Obese Patients Medical Slang
(alphabetical listing)
BBL sign (= belly-button lint sign) Male, middle-aged, overweight and hairy (an umbilicus that looks like the lint [fluff] trap in a tumble dryer is most common in overweight, hairy, older men). Known as Belly-button Fluff in Britain.
Beached whale Obese patient unable to do much for him/herself except lie there with flailing arms and legs.
DTS (= danger to shipping) In a particularly large patient's records.
CBT (= chronic burger toxicity (chronic biscuit toxicity) Obesity.
CFT (= ghronic food toxicity) Obesity.
Double Whopper with cheese Obese female with genital thrush.
Dunlap syndrome (AmE. Spare tire) (BrE, Spare tyre) Belly done lapped over the waistband; obese. Dunlop being a brand of tire.
Michelin's disease (Michelin's disorder) Multiple spare tyres (obese).
Polydipose dysfunction Big, fat patient (polydipose being invented plural of adipose [fat]).
TFTB (= too fat to breathe)
Whales (Blimp) (AmE, med slang) Extremely obese patients.
Children and Parents Medical Slang
(alphabetical listing)
BFH (= brat from hell) Usually accompanied by PFH.
- PFH (= parent(s) from hell)
DPS (= dumb parent syndrome) FLK (AmE) (= funny looking kid) Child with nothing particularly wrong.
- FLKw/GLM (= funny looking kid with a good looking mother)
- FLKBCOTP (= funny Looking kid but check out the parents)
- JLD (= just like dad) Often used to explain an FLK.
- NSA (= non-standard appearance) What a FLK grows into.
FLP (funny looking parents) Hereditary cause suspected for FLK.
GLM (= good looking mum)
HIVI (= husband is the village idiot)
HMF (= hysterical mother figure)
Parentectomy Removing parents as an effective cure for a child's problems.
PFH (= parent(s) from hell) Custodians of BFH (= brat from hell).
Pharmaceutically enhanced personality Stoned or medicated.
SWW Sick, wet and whiny (infant).
Inbreeding Medical Slang
FLK (= funny looking kid) Sometimes suggests rural inbreeding, or quaint rural oddness.
- FLKOFS (BrE) Regional variant of FLK, Okay For Sunderland.
- NFN (= normal for Norfolk) Regional variant of FLK.
- NFF (ScE) Normal fae Fife, suggests inbreeding or quaint rural oddness.
Unwelcome Patients Medical Slang
(alphabetical listing)
Dirtball Patient who enters the emergency room filthy and smelling badly
- DBI (= dirt bag index) Number of tattoos x number of missing teeth = days since the patient last bathed.
Dump Patient that nobody seems to want (or to transfer a patient to another hospital).
Eating the bill (AmE) Providing care for indigent patients lacking insurance i.e. "We ate the bill on that guy."
Estropício (Brazil) poor, unkempt obstetric patient ("jeopardy").
Geosphere (Geo = dirt + sphere = ball) Dirt Ball.
Lizard (AmE) Dirty patient who has a skin complaint.
Mulambo (lit, = rag + beggar) (Brazil) Poor patients in public outpatient clinics.
Negative wallet biopsy (AmE) Patient transferred to cheaper hospital because s/he has no insurance/funds.
PIMBA (Port, = Pé Inchado Mulambo Bêbado Atropelado) (Brazil) Swollen-footed, drunk, run-over beggar.
Plank positive Stupid, as in “thick as 2 short planks.”
POS (= piece of shit) (AmE) Patients unable to look after themselves, usually applied to alcoholics.
PWT (= po' (poor) white trash) With a condition related to their lifestyle.
Reeker (AmE) Smelly patient.
Scut (AmE) Patient held in low esteem by the staff.
SHAD (= Syphilitic, Hypochondriac, Alcoholic Degenerate)
Shpos (= sub-human piece of shit) (AmE, med slang) Most derogatory dismissal of a patient.
Tattoo titre Indication of patient insanity: more than 5 tattoos indicates likely crazy person.
Ten-F (AmE) Stereotypical gall bladder patient who is: fat, fair, fecund, fortyish, flatulent female with foul, floating feces.
Tooth to tattoo ratio Visual determination of basic intelligence. A positive ratio (more teeth then tattoos) is generally better than a negative ratio is bad.
- TTR (= Tattoo-to-Tooth Ratio) (AmE) Dirtbag Ratio.
- T&T sign (Tattoo-to-Teeth Sign) Survival indicator; those who are tattooed and toothless will survive major injuries.
TWSAM (= trash will survive and multiply)
Urban outdoorsman Homeless person.
Senile Patients Slang
(alphabetical listing)
Dement Alzheimer patient.
Pleasantly demented (AmE) Standard description of a patient who, though in the throes of senility, can carry on an appropriate conversation and occasionally give the impression of having perfect mental capacity.
Drooler Catatonic patient.
International House of Pancakes Neurology ward full of patients (usually stroke victims) all babbling in a different language.
Not even in the ball game (Not in the program) (AmE) Confused, senile patient.
O sign Patient unconscious with mouth open.
Rudy Baga Patient with terminal brain injury, persistent vegetative state (rutabaga is a vegetable).
Comatose Patients Slang
(alphabetical listing)
Brain stem prep (Gork) (AmE) Deeply comatose patient, a human vegetable.
- O sign Comatose patient with mouth persistently wide open, as seen on a mouth-breathing sleeping patient.
- Q sign O sign with the patient’s tongue hanging out.
Human vegetable (Vegetable) Patient whose brain has ceased to function above the most basic level due to accident or disease, and is in a long-term coma.
- Squash rot State of being a human vegetable.
- Fertilize the vegetables (AmE) v To order vitamins or tube feedings for comatose patients.
- C & T ward (= cabbages and turnips) (AmE) Ward where comatose patients are housed.
- Vegetable garden (AmE) Ward filled with patients suffering from serious brain damage, who are unable to care for themselves. The patients are variously described as vegetables, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, etc.
Rose (AmE) Comatose patient who is expected to die. Derived from the excessively pink color of the skin and the frailty of the person so described.
- Rose garden (AmE) Group of comatose, extremely weak, patients.
- Rose room (AmE) Ward set aside for comatose patients, who may be about to die.
International House of Pancakes (AmE) Neurology ward in which the patients, often stroke cases, babble unintelligible languages. Expression is derived from the name of the US restaurant chain.
- Fruit salad (AmE) Group of stroke patients unable to look after themselves.
Train wreck (AmE) Patient with several severe medical problems and is comatose.
Patients with Poor Prospects Slang
• Death: Medical Slang • Terminal Care, Part 3
(alphabetical listing)
AQP Assuming the Q position, deteriorating or dying with tongue hanging out.
- Q sign (Q position) Patient unconscious/terminal with mouth open and tongue hanging out;
- Dotted Q Flies land on tongue of dying.
Anaerobe Patient with chronically poor lung function whose blood levels seem too low to be compatible with life, yet who seems to function normally nonetheless. Term borrowed from bacteriology.
Code azure (AmE) Message to other medical professionals to do nothing extraordinary to save a very ill patient who will die shortly no matter what is done.
- Code blue (AmE) Message mobilizing staff in an effort to save someone.
Kick-off room (AmE) Room in which a terminally ill patient is placed to die when nothing else can be done.
PPPP (= particularly piss-poor protoplasm) Diagnostic initialism for a patient in poor shape.
- PMSB (AmE, poor miserable son of a bitch)
- Basket case (AmE) Patient suffering from severe multiple injuries.
- Albatross (AmE) Chronically ill patient who will remain with a doctor until one of them expires.
- AFU & BR (= all fucked up & beyond repair)
- AGMI (= Ain't Gonna Make It) Will not survive.
CTD (= circling the drain) Play on close to death.
- Doing the twirly Circling the drain, about to die.
Soapbox derby syndrome (AmE) Patient going downhill fast.
- CTD (= circling the drain) (AmE) Very sick and failing fast.
- FTD (AmE) Fixin’ to die.
- Play God v To make life and death decisions.
- DNR (= do not resuscitate) Instruction to let the patient die.
Zero delta (AmE) No change.
Medical Dying Slang
(alphabetical listing)
Albatross Chronically ill patient who will remain with a doctor until one or other of them expire.
Amyoyo syndrome (= alright motherfucker, you're on your own) Seen in head injury patients in intensive care.
CFD (= call for dirt) Severely ill or dead or nearly so.
Discharged downstairs Transferred to the morgue.
Donorcycle Motorbike, the biggest cause of donated organs.
DRT (= dead right there) Patient dead at scene of accident.
DRTTTT (= dead right there, there, there and there) Patient dead and in multiple parts at scene of accident.
DWPA (= death/dying with paramedic assistance)
ECU (= eternal care unit) Heaven
- Gone to the ECU Dead.
FDSTW (= found dead stayed that way) Dead.
FFDID (= found face down in ditch) Dead.
FFDIG (= found face down in gutter) Dead.
FIRT (= failed impact resistance test) Dead.crash victim.
FORD (= found on road dead) Dead.
FOOBA (= found on ortho barely alive) Play on FUBAR (= fucked up beyond all recognition)
FOS (= found on street) Unidentified dead homeless person.
FPT (Brazil, = Fora de Possibilidade Terapêutica) Beyond help, do not resuscitate.
FTD (= fixing to die) Dying.
FTF (= failed to fly) Botched suicide.
GDA (= gonna die anyway) Dying.
Gork Comatose or brain dead.
GPO (= good for parts only) Will not survive.
GRAFOB (grim reaper at foot of bed)
GRAHOB (= grim reaper at head of bed)
Gravity assisted concrete poisoning Jumped/fell from height.
GTTL (= gone to the light) Died.
Hamburger (Helper) Train or juggernaut vs pedestrian.
Healthy Goober Dead tumour patient.
ITBNTL (In The Box, Nail The Lid) Dead or dying.
Last Flea To Jump Off A Dead Dog Oncologists (sometimes other disciplines) who seem unable to let people die with diginity.
LRO (Luck Ran Out) Cheated death before, but not this time.
MFD (= measure for box) Severely ill or dead or nearly so.
NGMI (Not Going to Make It)
NLPR (= No longer playing records) Dying.
OFIG (= one foot in the grave)
OFIGATOOS (= One Foot In the Grave And The Other One Slipping)
Old man's friend (AmE) Pneumonia, an illness which often carried off the elderly.
Pathology outpatients Follow-up for dead people.
Paws up Dead.
PBAB (= Pine Box At Bedside)
PBS (= Pretty bad shape)
PBOO (= Pine Box On Order)
Pre-stiff Terminally comatose patient.
RBG (Received by God) Person in receipt of a Celestial Transfer.
RBS (= really bad shape)
Rose cottage Mortuary.
RT (= room temperature) Dead.
Rule of five If more than five of the patient's orifices are obscured by tubing, he has no chance.
Síndrome JEC (Port, Jesus Está Chamando = Jesus is calling) (Brazil) Terminal patient.
Slow code (Slow code to China) Elderly very ill patient who wants everything done so they will not die. Everyone on the medical team disagrees.
Smurf sign Patient blue or going blue.
SNUD (= sick nigh unto death)
SVRI (= Something Very Wrong Inside) Usually terminal.
Taxidermy consult Call for a taxidermist's consultation, i.e. person about to die.
TEC (= transfer to eternal care) Dead.
TF BUNDY (= totally fucked, but unfortunately not dead yet)
TFO (= Too Focking Old) Person dying of old age.
TMB (= Too Many Birthdays) Person dying of “old age.”
VAC (= Vultures are Circling) Dying.
Death: Medical Slang
10th floor transfer Dying (floor number is always the next number on from the highest floor in the hospital).
- Transfer to the Nth + 1 floor (AmE) v To die, N denotes the top floor of the hospital.
- Transfer to the ECU (AmE) v To die, i.e. to go to the “external care unit”.
(alphabetical listing)
Angel lust (AmE) Male cadaver with an erection (not uncommon).
Note : Term sometimes used to mean death that occurred during intercourse.
ART (= assuming room temperature) Dead. Ash cash (BrE) Money for signing a cremation form.
- Ash point Where ash cash is collected.
AST (assuming seasonal temperature) Dead. Bagged and tagged (B&T) Body ready for dispatch to morgue. Box To die. Celestial discharge Died. Celestial transfer Died, transferred to the Eternal Care Unit. Cold-tea sign Refers to the several cups of cold tea on the bedside cabinet beside a dead geriatric, that is no-one noticed the patient had died. Flatline (AmE) To die.
- Boxed (Box; Box out) (AmE) Put in a pine box, i.e. died.
- MFC (= measure for coffin) (AmE) Dead.
- Nebraska sign (AmE) Emergency room slang for a dead patient’s flat (like Nebraska) ECG reading.
- Negative patient care outcome (AmE) Died.
- Tubed (AmE) Died, as in going down the ‘tubes’.
- Icebox (Cooler; Ward X) (AmE) Hospital morgue.
Packing (AmE) Preparing a body for the morgue.
