What do medics mean when they say...

[Michael]

..."snow a patient"? I gather it means something other than deceiving, the way a student might boast of snowing a teacher, ie, pulling a snow job.

[mobey]

It means to render one incompacitated with pharmeceuticals.

Such as: Preperation for intubation, or 5mg haldol/5mg ativan to settle a crazy mother-in law at christmas time.

[Michael]

It was in connection with intubation, so that makes sense. Apparently a medic radioed or phoned to medical control to ask about snowing the pt, the doc said Sure, do it, but was surprised when the pt arrived intubated; apparently the doc hadn't been familiar with the slang term for the procedure he'd approved. Thanks, mobey.

[VentMedic]

It was in connection with intubation, so that makes sense. Apparently a medic radioed or phoned to medical control to ask about snowing the pt, the doc said Sure, do it, but was surprised when the pt arrived intubated; apparently the doc hadn't been familiar with the slang term for the procedure he'd approved. Thanks, mobey.

To "snow" a patient means to sedate. If the patient is unmanageable due to anxiety or pain, we will sedate enough where they will be out. If we have to intubate because we over sedated, it can be counted as a serious med error or an adverse event that was not the plan.

[scubanurse]

lovely... we have doc's okaying procedures they aren't familiar with and medics using slang over the radio.... just super.

[Michael]

scuba, those were precisely the lessons the cautionary tale I heard was intended to convey: Don't use slang + also know Why as well as What you and those with whom you communicate are doing.

Vent, in this case the intubation had been the medic's plan, so at least that part wasn't an error.

[VentMedic]

Vent, in this case the intubation had been the medic's plan, so at least that part wasn't an error.

Of course it was....do you think the medic would admit if it wasn't?

[jsadin]

It is a bit disturbing, more so because the doc approved a procedure he wasn't sure of than that the medic was using slang (perhaps that's normal to use slang in their area). Kindof shows a lack of a "give-a-crap" attitude on the docs part.

[Michael]

Ah. Like this, eh? (From Wiki:)

>The judicial murder of Enghien shocked the aristocrats of Europe, who still remembered the bloodletting of the Revolution and who lost whatever conditional respect they may have entertained for Napoleon. Either Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe (deputy from Meurthe in the Corps législatif) or Napoleon's chief of police, Joseph Fouché, said about his execution, "It is worse than a crime; it is a mistake." ("C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute."), a statement often rendered in English as "It was worse than a crime; it was a mistake." The statement is also sometimes attributed to French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Sometimes the quote is given as, "It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder."<

[VentMedic]

It is a bit disturbing, more so because the doc approved a procedure he wasn't sure of than that the medic was using slang (perhaps that's normal to use slang in their area). Kindof shows a lack of a "give-a-crap" attitude on the docs part.

That term is used frequently in the hospitals. To sedate and to intubate are two very different things. The report should have given some indication of the patient requiring intubation. Perhaps the Paramedic was not clear about the patient's overall condtion.