Doctor Slang

By Anne Geske Utne.Com
Published on August 1, 2003

Dr. Adam Fox, a physician at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, says
the inventive language that doctors have created to insult their
patients (and apparently to amuse themselves) is in danger of dying
out. Unbeknownst to many, it seems doctors the world over have
taken the medical acronym one step further by creating their own
shorthand to say the unsayable about their patients. As co-author
of a paper published in the journal Ethics and Behavior,
Fox states that the increasing number of lawsuits makes it more
likely that doctors will be asked to explain these notations in
court. For instance, there’s LOBNH (Lights On But Nobody Home), GLM
(Good Looking Mum), and Digging for Worms (varicose vein surgery),
to name a few. While taking care not to advocate its use, Fox
believes that, like other unique forms of communication, the doctor
slang is worthy of recording for posterity before it starts CTD
(Circling the Drain).
Anne Geske

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