My name is Alexis Cyr and I am studying to become a paramedic. Paramedics work in the medical field. They provide care for patients and offer transportation to hospitals. This glossary was created in the aim to define some words used in the profession that can be complicated or confusing.
airway
noun
A passage for a current of air such as the lungs.
Example: The cause of death was respiratory failure due to a blocked airway.
fr: voies respiratoires
ambulance
noun
A vehicle equipped for transporting the injured or sick.
Example: An ambulance took Carmignani to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
—Jesse Barron, New York Times, 16 Nov. 2023
fr: ambulance
aspiration
noun
A drawing of something in, out, up, or through by or as if by suction such as the taking of foreign matter into the lungs with the respiratory current.
Example: An aspiration caused an infection of the patient's lungs.
fr: aspiration
bag-mask
noun
A hand-held device commonly used to provide positive pressure ventilation to patients who are not breathing or not breathing adequately.
Example: The paramedics used a bag-mask to ventilate the patient.
fr: ballon-masque
chronic
adjective
Continuing or occurring again and again for a long time.
Example: He suffers from chronic arthritis.
fr: chronique
defibrillator
noun
An electronic device that applies an electric shock to restore the rhythm of a fibrillating heart.
Example: With the use of a defibrillator, the odds of survival greatly increase.
—Jackson Tolliver, BostonGlobe.com, 27 July 2023
fr: défibrillateur
intubation
noun
The introduction of a tube into a hollow organ or part (such as the trachea or stomach) especially to maintain an open passage or gain access to the interior.
Example: Many of those children ended up needing intubation and a ventilator to breathe for them.
—Jonathan Reisman, Discover Magazine, 27 May 2015
fr: intubation
paramedic
noun
A specially trained medical technician licensed to provide a wide range of emergency services (such as defibrillation and the intravenous administration of drugs) before or during a transportation to a hospital.
Example: She's training to be a paramedic.
fr: paramédic
patient
noun
An individual awaiting or under medical care and treatment.
Example: The nurse asked the patient to change into a paper gown.
fr: patient
protocol
noun
A detailed plan of a scientific or medical experiment, treatment, or procedure.
Example: Paramedics have to follow the current protocols to treat patients.
fr: protocole
regurgitation
noun
The casting up of incompletely digested food.
Example: Anesthesiologists should also discuss the risk of regurgitation and food aspiration with other doctors involved in the surgery and the patient, the group said.
—Elaine Chen Reprints, STAT, 29 June 2023
fr: régurgitation
resuscitation
noun
The act or an instance of reviving someone from apparent death or from unconsciousness.
Example: Yet these same physicians struggle to recommend against resuscitation, despite knowing that death is certain and near.
—Sunita Puri, The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2023
fr: réanimation
tracheal
adjective
Relative to the main trunk of the system of tubes by which air passes to and from the lungs.
Example: The patient has a tracheal cancer that prevents him from talking.
fr: trachéal
trauma
noun
An injury (such as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent.
Example: The accident victim sustained multiple traumas.
fr: traumatisme
ventilation
noun
The artificial respiration of the lungs.
Example: According to the Center for Disease Control, this drug can make the process of acclimatization take only a single day, rather than four or five, by stimulating ventilation.
—Allie Conti, Field & Stream, 27 Sep. 2023
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