Skip to content

Morbid Metaphors, from Marion Dreyfus

Life we take for granted,

we still horripilate at the scent of our end [Have a Will?]

When we think of the thanatic

We freq become emphatic

Docs, like folks of other sort

have devised abbrevs to retort

Thus a man deemed NGMI

Is a Not Gonna Make It guy;

ART, or Approaching Room Temp, means Dead

[or so it's said]

Far less dire, SIO, now don't scoff

happily translates to Sleeping It Off

Contrarily, that mess covered with a bloody cape

Is a patient in PBS, Pretty Bad Shape

Another way to put it

Is FTD, Fixin' to Die

Despite the best efforts of meds 'n' docs all day

He might still be GDA — Gonna Die Anyway

Some patients then become GPO

Good Parts Only: lungs, veins, scro'. . .

Should you find them sluggish, full of lead

They're now GRAFOB, Grim Reaper at Foot of Bed

If patient expires, Paws Up, PU,

Take a hard look at the consequent view:

His LRO, Luck Ran Out, his blood once red

now, alas, HBD, He just Be Dead

"Discharged downstairs" means sent to morgue

to celestial transfer. Please don't forgue

At scenes of accident, he's DOTS

Dead on the Spot, zero finesse

If the crash was gruesome, no breath to spare

he'll be DRTTT, or Deceased Right There, There and There

Beating Off Angels, or BOA, as docs arrive

Is CPR on hopeless folks who won't survive

Yet there's hope, CD, as there's the Coffin Dodger

eluding inept KHB, Knife-Happy Blade, a surgeon botcher

The hurt may prevail over horrendoectomy

the lasting surgical result of foreverectomy

But sometimes, DTTM, the worst to bod or chromosome

comes to Don't Transfer to Me! patients with LWS –

Low Wallet Syndrome