A leading doctor has unveiled a dictionary of medical slang that staffs on Britain’s hospital wards have developed.
Paul Keeley, a consultant in palliative medicine, has revealed that most of the words used by doctors today have been taken from popular TV shows and films.He revealed that an accident and emergency case patient would often be named Hasselhoff, after former Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff.
Keeley said that this slang was coined after Hasselhoff said last year that he had hit his head on a chandelier while shaving. The broken glass severed four tendons and an artery in his right arm, which required immediate surgery.
For an ecstasy tablet, the doctors would use the term “disco biscuit”, he revealed.
A Father Jack, taken from the name of the drunken old priest in the sitcom Father Ted, would be used for confused and elderly patients who constantly shout and try to get out of bed.
“It’s something I have picked up over the last few years from teaching junior doctors. I have always had an interest in language and I noticed that junior doctors seem to have picked up a whole vocabulary of language that older doctors like me don’t have,” the Telegraph quoted Keeley as telling the British Medical Journal.
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A MacTilt describes how a Macmillan nurse tilts his or her head to convey sympathy or understanding to a cancer patient.
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Dr Keeley, who works at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said that he would continue to gather medical slang, and might launch a website or produce a follow up for the BMJ next year.
“It has become quite a topic of conversation in the hospital where I work and I am sure I will be flooded with more examples,” he said.
Source-ANI
SRM /GA
