Language Changes re the verb "Coding"

I read in the WP today the word "coded".

A physician in Kentucky, used it in this way:

One coded on me that morning. Oxygen deprivation. He was my 27th covid death.
Click to expand...

I had never heard the word "coded" before used in a medical situation.
At first, in my ignorance, I thought it meant "to die of covid", but of course it only means that there was an alert.
Coding means when a person is in need of immediate aid of some sort. And in this situation, refers to a person needing resuscitation.

Language is truly a living social construct. Constantly emerging and morphing.

WP article.
 
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Mark said:
About Languages and language usage.
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Interesting thread and posts; I've taken the liberty of amending the thread title as I think that your original title ("language") was too broad, for it would have included any and all changes in how language is used.
 
Mark said:
I read in the WP today the word "coded".

A physician in Kentucky, used it in this way:



I had never heard the word "coded" before used in a medical situation.
At first, in my ignorance, I thought it meant "to die of covid", but of course it only means that there was an alert.
Coding means when a person is in need of immediate aid of some sort. And in this situation, refers to a person needing resuscitation.

Language is truly a living social construct. Constantly emerging and morphing.

WP article.
Click to expand...
The etymology is that for every emergency event, hospitals have a system of codes. The most dreaded of these is what most places call "code blue" for resuscitation. People refer to this one colloquially when they say someone "coded".

It is the most stressful situation in a healthcare setting for patients, families, nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians.
 
PearsonX said:
The etymology is that for every emergency event, hospitals have a system of codes. The most dreaded of these is code blue for resuscitation. People refer to this one colloquially when they say someone "coded".

It is the most stressful situation in a healthcare setting for patients, families, nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians.
Click to expand...

Fascinating.

This is something I hadn't known.
 
We used to have a laundry list of codes they could call out over the PA system in school. Code red meant there was an armed intruder, code blue meant paramedics in the building, and on and on. The idea was not to panic the kids. The kids all knew the codes. The teachers never remembered. And of course, it differed from school to school.

Three years ago, the school district moved to A.L.I.C.E. (Don’t ask me what that stands for) for emergencies. The first lesson stated to NOT use codes. Make an announcement and be clear and concise as to what was happening to whom and where. And yet, we had a coach (of course) who constantly got on his walkie-talkie and hollered “code red! Code red!” Whenever a fight broke out. Dude - who’s fighting, and where the heck are you?!
 
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