O-sign
An unconscious patient lying with the mouth gaping open in an O — gravely ill.
Definitions
Bedside shorthand for a patient who's deeply out of it — flat on their back, jaw slack, mouth hanging open in a perfect O. It's the look that tells the on-call team this one's circling the drain. Pair it with the Q-sign (tongue lolls out the side) and the prognosis gets worse. Dark humour, but every hospital in the English-speaking world uses it.
O-sign In A Sentence
Origin & Usage
Anglo-American hospital slang, mid-20th century.
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