What do medics mean when they say...

[CBEMT]

. 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.

Medical Control FAIL!

[AnthonyM83]

Or the doc just thought it meant something different? (AKA just sedate versus sedate/paralyze/intubate)

[mobey]

I suppose it is different everywhere, but here it is boys bathroom talk for RSI, or RSS, sometimes for moderate sedation, but usually includes intubation.

Usually used like this:

Dude.... I like, totally snowed and snorkeled that Micheal guy!!

[Doczilla]

"Snow" is in reference to Dr. John Snow, who was a pioneer in the early use of chloroform and later ether for general surgical anesthesia. To snow someone means to anesthetize them, though this can have varying meanings. We snow people for intubation, snow them for procedures so they will tolerate them better, or snow them with pain drugs when we don't know the cause of the pain but must reach a disposition. Each of these implies a different level of anesthesia.

'zilla

[DwayneEMTP]

Certainly not an appropriate medical term in my world, but I’d hold off on stringing those involved up from the gallows just yet…

I would certainly 'snow' a pt I needed to intubate. But I once snowed an older gentleman with an OD of Promethazine, because he became much more sedated than I had hoped. He was protecting his own airway...so not snowed in the sense of intubation, simply beyond what I had hoped, or what was productive for him...

I haven't used this term except in casual conversation (Man, I just wanted to manage his N/V but ended up snowing him instead), never in a professional setting (Yeah Doc, he was seizing, so we decided to snow him), but I would define it as any altered mentation brought about pharmaceutically, from slightly confused/disoriented, when neither was desired, to completely obtunded, which is of course what makes it an inappropriate term unless all involved have defined it in exactly the same way.

Kind of like saying, “Man, ak really got “lit” at that party!” What is lit? For me, and the company I keep, it most likely means he got a little drunker that he would have liked, was silly and funny.

In different company I’d have to wonder if we’re talking booze, or pot, if he got into a fight and someone “lit him up” verbally or physically. Lit works here, because it’s unimportant if I understand the exact definition or not, as someone is simply passing me information to use to give him hell with later. If his health is involved then we certainly need to be much more accurate than this.

On the flip side, if ak said, “We’re going to have to snow this guy.” (Not really an ak thing to say, but still) I would have no problem with that. As he and I have known each other a few days now, I’m assuming he knows when he says it that I will take the appropriate steps, in a professional and responsible manner as they relate to this specific situation, to sedate the patient to the level that I, or we, feel is appropriate. He’s not giving specific instructions, only making known, or making his agreement clear, that we will follow a certain path of medication that we are both familiar with. See the difference?

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got, for what it’s worth.

Dwayne

[DwayneEMTP]

"Snow" is in reference to Dr. John Snow, who was a pioneer in the early use of chloroform and later ether for general surgical anesthesia.

Hell, I'd assumed it was the context of lost in a 'snow storm"...confused, unable to find your own way.

But I guess I'll give you the the benefit of the doubt and go with your story Doc... :wink:

Dwayne

[Michael]

“Man, ak really got “lit” at that party!”

And I'd have assumed a political affiliation infected with him a passion for literary studies. All depends on which, uh, class of drugs you seek, I spoze.

Meanwhile, an ambulance en route to a call had to stop unexpectedly at a railroad crossing while a long freight train rumbled by. Thinking to explain the delay, the driver radioed to dispatch: "We hit the train," which dispatch interpreted literally, and deployed you can imagine what kind of response. True story, they tell me.

[fiznat]

"Snow" is in reference to Dr. John Snow, who was a pioneer in the early use of chloroform and later ether for general surgical anesthesia.

Hey cool thanks for that! I love picking up these little tidbits here and there. The wikipedia article about Dr. Snow is pretty cool as well...

[firedoc5]

Something I always taught and corrected some people is to not use slang on the radio or reports. IMHO it is somewhat unprofessional and can be confusing. This thread is an excellent example of just that.

We had one Medic call in one night asking the ER to do a "porcelain level" on a pt. It was more or less trying to convey the pt's. chief complaint as a "crock". At that time we had a new EMS director and he was not amused. The Medic was wrote up. But right after he did it I corrected him real quick. Yes, the call was a "crock", but that doesn't mean you should just make it more of a silly situation.

[EMS49393]

I'm not a big fan of slang. I occasionally use it when talking to my husband, but I NEVER use it at work, especially if I'm giving a report on a patient. I field a lot of the radio reports at my ER, and outside of slang, my biggest pet peeve is the use of the word "amp" to describe a medication dose. What exactly is an amp? Perhaps my definition of an amp is different than your definition of amp. My guitar has an amp, I certainly hope you aren't using that to administer D50W. In this case, I understand that amp is short for ampule, but I feel it has no place being used explain the dose of a medication that was administered. After all, it's really not that hard to say "Administered 25 mg of Dextrose IV..." It's one additional syllable. D50W doesn't even come packed in anything that could be remotely described as an ampule.

Slang serves two purposes. It lets people be lazy when verbally communicating with other people and it creates confusion should the slang term become lost in translation.