Being “Snowed” in Anesthesiology

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I have A Way with Words. My name is Max and I work on an ambulance. I’m from Dallas, Texas.

Max, we’re glad to have you.

Hi, Max. So you’re an EMT?

Thank you. I’m a paramedic and my word that I wanted to bring up is some medical slang that we use.

It’s a verb we say, snowed.

And it’s when a patient reaches a high level of drug intoxication to where their level of consciousness is altered to the point where they’re usually only aware of themselves.

They’re snowed.

Okay.

Yeah, that’s interesting.

So you’ve known this as long as you’ve been in the profession?

Yes.

I don’t know where it comes from.

There’s a couple ideas behind that one.

One is that it just might be related to the idea that the patient now has blizzard-like perceptions.

They’re snowed.

It’s like all their senses are dulled to nothing as if they’re in a whiteout from a blizzard.

But there’s another possible origin, and this involves a legendary figure in the world of anesthesiology.

Have you ever heard of the British doctor John Snow?

No, I haven’t.

I’ve never heard Jon Snow.

Not the Game of Thrones character, although maybe he’s named after him.

I don’t know.

So we’re talking 1800s.

He spent a lot of time researching anesthetics and anesthesiology, especially after the death of a 15-year-old girl who had been given too much chloroform for a surgical resection of a toenail, basically a minor surgery.

And the way they administered the chloroform is they just put a bunch of it on a cloth and held it up to her mouth.

There was no measurement.

There was no machinery for it.

They just kind of just plopped it onto her face, and she died from it.

And so he spent some time looking into what other people were doing and developed machinery for administering measured doses of chloroform so that it could be used during surgery.

And so it could be safely used.

So you could estimate based upon, just like we do, the weight and the amount of chloroform so that you could reduce the risk of death or other trauma from the anesthetic.

And he also was known for administering chloroform to Queen Victoria for the birth of two of her children.

And this was in contradiction to the medical profession at the time and the religious establishment, who all said that this should not be done for the safety and just kind of the religious belief that the mother and child should not go through this.

But Queen Victoria insisted, and he went through with it.

And because of that, it became standard to allow anesthetic to be administered to birthing mothers.

So he’s responsible.

But the more important thing that he’s known for is he developed a theory about the transmission of cholera.

He determined that it was spread by contaminated drinking water and not by foul air, which had been the hypothesis up to the time.

So anyway, the idea of being snowed, being kind of completely under, almost completely under an anesthetic so that you’re oblivious to the world may come from British Dr. John Snow.

I didn’t know that.

I could see the blizzard part, but that makes more sense because it’s that fine line.

You want to know the patient so they’re in a good spot, but you don’t want to give them so much you kill them accidentally.

Well, Max, we hope you’ll call us again sometime and share some more medical jargon.

We really dig that stuff.

Hey, thank you, and I’ll spread the word to Jon Snow.

Yeah, Jon Snow.

Look him up.

He’s fascinating.

Just Google Jon Snow anesthesiology, and you’ll find fascinating biographies of this man.

Well, you guys keep up the good work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Take care.

Be safe out there.

You too.

And thank you for your good work.

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