alive day n. the anniversary of a close escape from death, especially one involving permanent injury. Editorial Note: Jim Mayer and former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) have been celebrating their “alive days” for decades, since receiving...
dust-off n.— «The first dust-off is already lifting off, heading back into combat for more casualties, while a second chopper comes in quickly to take its place.» —by Lynda Van Devanter Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army...
levo n.— «Julia and M.J. quickly assembled their weapons for the battle ahead: bags of fluid and lots of IV lines, blood pressure boosters called pressors, and epinephrine—”levo,” in nurse parlance—to counteract shock...
mets n.— «There is no stage V. It was the worst of all news—”as bad as it can get,” confirmed the nurse at the Middlesex Hospital who rang to inform me that the CT scan had revealed mets (metastases, or spread) in my liver...
terminal wean n.— «In twelve cases they performed a procedure called, in only mildly obscurantist language, a “terminal wean.” (Although neither doctors nor nurses literally “pull the plug,” the process is dramatic...
mangled care n.— «I’m a registered nurse and have watched the sorry state of managed care over the last decade bring less care to more people. It’s so bad that many nurses refer to it as mangled care.» —“Letters to...