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This is the one Una mentioned
A Doctor’s Understanding Of It
I’m a paramedic and I was responding to a call for a child who was injured. I arrive on scene and the firefighter hands me a limp five-year-old. I immediately check that he has a pulse and is breathing, which he was, and take him into my ambulance to assess him. We try to verbally stimulate him and try to provoke a pain response and we’re getting nothing.
As we’re checking all his vital signs, which are all coming back normal, we poke his heel with a tiny needle to check his blood sugar, and he suddenly wakes up and starts crying. My partner and I looked at each other in relief. A crying baby/child is better than a non-responsive one. All his vitals continue to check out normal and his responsiveness is good.
At this point, the mother arrives on scene and comes into the back of the ambulance. She looked worried and we calmed her down and explained what happened. We recommend transport to the hospital so they can run some tests to figure out why he was non-responsive in the first place, and she agrees. Along the way, I’m explaining everything to her in layman’s terms and she is staying very calm.
Apparently, the reason she was not there initially was that she hired a babysitter for the night. While she was out, she got a call from the babysitter saying she had to call for help because the child wasn’t acting right. We get to the hospital, and after getting a room, we place the child on the bed and the doctor arrives. At this point, I switch to full medical terms as I give the story to her.
She is asking follow-up questions and I’m responding. The mother was concerned about all these terms that are foreign to her and she asked, “What is this word ‘LETHARGIC’ that you keep on saying?” I turn to the mother and start explaining that it just means her child was excessively tired beyond normal. That’s when the doctor said something that made my jaw drop: “No, ‘lethargic’ means ‘dead.’ I need to figure out why the medic was using that term.”
To any non-medical personnel, and apparently even medical personnel, “lethargic” does NOT mean “dead.” At this point, the mother starts freaking out saying, “Wait, are you telling me my son was dead earlier?” I very quickly ask the doc if she needs anything else from me and when she says no, I turn tail and book it. I was not about to start dealing with that mess that the doc just started.
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