GB

General Broadcast. A radio alert which goes out to ALL frontline vehicles (known as mobiles) on a specific channel. The broadcast contains information or requests crews to ‘green up’ and make themselves available for a call that is queuing. When we are very busy, GB’s are common.

VDI

Vehicle Daily Inspection. Drivers of all vehicles in the service are required to check the safety and roadworthiness of the ambulance, car, motorbike, bicycle or whatever they are taking into commission. The check includes all equipment on board.

HART

Hazardous Area Response Team. Specialist crews trained and equipped to work in highly hazardous areas, including those with chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear risks. They also go to building collapses, serious road-traffic collisions, fires and tube trains stuck between stations underground. Space-age stuff.

PR

PR. Per rectum means 'from or through the rectum' and is often followed by the word bleed to describe bleeding from that particular area. Since the rectum is an orifice leading to a body cavity, any bleeding from it must be taken seriously (unless it is nothing more than piles or small blood vessel ruptures caused by straining). A PR bleed can indicate disease (such as cancer) or internal haemorrhage.

Relative term: PV

PV

PV. Per vaginam is Latin for 'from the vagina' and is often followed by the word bleed to describe bleeding from that particular area. Since the vagina is an orifice leading to a body cavity, any bleeding from it must be taken seriously (unless of course it is part of the normal non-conceptual menstrual cycle). A PV bleed during pregnancy may indicate a complication.

Relative term: PR

Munchausen syndrome

Munchausen syndrome. A type of factitious disorder, or mental illness, in which a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when they themselves have caused the symptoms. It is a mental illness primarily associated with severe emotional difficulties. We see a number of these patients during the course of a working year - if you haven't met them before, you can be fooled into believing their 'illness' is genuine.

Running Call

Running Call. A running call is a job that you either come across whilst on duty or you are flagged down to attend, usually either by the general public or the police. It is a call that has not yet been processed by ambulance control and has not been designated a CAD, or job number and to which an ambulance has not yet been assigned. I get a lot of them. I don't know why.

ETOH

ETOH. The acronym refers to Ethyl Alcohol (chemical formula CH3CH2OH), which is grain alcohol and so generally used to describe any relative alcoholic condition. It is an inaccurate term but well suited when we want to write 'drunk' or 'affected by alcohol' or are tempted to use other, less academic terms!

Ischaemia

Ischaemia. This means lack of bloodflow to a part of the body - thus little or no oxygen is being delivered and the part is dying as a result. It is more commonly associated with the heart but can be applied to other parts of the body.

Vascular disease is the usual culprit.

Relative term: M.I.

M.I.

M.I. Myocardial Infarction. The term means heart attack. It describes the death of the heart muscle (not all of it but a part of it) due to lack of oxygen as a result of ischaemia. The word 'infarction' comes from the Latin 'infarcire' meaning 'to plug up or cram.' It refers to the clogging of the artery that results in a lack of oxygen to part of the heart muscle (the myocardium).


Myocardial means 'of the heart muscle'.

Relative term: Ischaemia

Shell

Shell. An empty vehicle. In other words, an ambulance that has no medical kit on board.

ROSR

ROSR. Return of spontaneous respiration. Used when, during a resuscitation attempt, breathing returns and continues with or without support. It's a good sign but not an excuse for complacency. Spontaneous breathing can stop if the patient arrests again.

Relative term: ROSC

ROSC

ROSC. Return of spontaneous circulation. Used when, during a resuscitation attempt, a palpable pulse is felt and continues when chest compressions cease. It's a good sign but not an excuse for complacency. The pulse can disappear again and again during CPR as the heart behaves and misbehaves.

Relative term: ROSR

Diaphoretic

Diaphoretic. Sweating profusely.

Post ictal

Post ictal. The period of confusion that follows a generalised seizure.

RTC

RTC. Road Traffic Collision. We used to say RTA, (Road Traffic Accident) but someone, somewhere decided the word accident meant that nobody was to blame and potentially posed a legal nightmare, so the word collision was put in its place. That way, no matter what hit what (bike vs. pedestrian, bus vs. car, cyclist vs. manhole cover), someone could be held accountable, although I'd like to see what a manhole cover has to say for itself in court.

The word incident could have been used but I guess that sounds too innocuous for the purists.

EP fit

EP fit. Epileptic fit. We are lazy and resort to shortening the word, that's all. We also use the term seizure but it is difficult to know which word is currently vogue as there seems to be a political correctness about the whole thing. I never ever get complaints from epileptic patients about the term I choose to use. Funny that.

Bradycardia

Bradycardia. A slow heart rate. In adults this term is applied when the HR is less than 60 bpm. In athletes and other individuals it may be perfectly normal to have such a low heart rate, however, and the term is only applied clinically where the rate is seen as abnormal for the patient.

Relative term: tachycardia

Tachycardia

Tachcardia. A fast heart rate. A heart rate above 10o beats per minute in adults is considered tachycardic. Sometimes the word is shortened to 'tachy', as in "the patient was tachy at 130".

Relative term : bradycardia.

KVO

KVO. To cannulate a patient in order to keep a vein patent. Also termed TKVO, to keep vein open, the technique is actually meant for use in hospitals where patients are on fluid or drug therapy. A specific flow rate for the fluids will be chosen in order to keep the vein 'open' and the cannula clear for repeated use.

In the pre-hospital environment, it is not always necessary to insert a cannula for KVO purposes but where hospital transport times are long or delayed, or where the imminence of losing vascular access appears threatening, it may be prudent to make the clinical decision of inserting a cannula and flushing it - or even setting a slow drip rate in order to KVO.