critical condition
Touch and go
Critical condition describes a patient whose vital signs are unstable and whose outcome is uncertain—they may die or suffer permanent harm without immediate intervention.
Hospitals use the term as one of several standard categories for communicating patient status: He remains in critical condition after the crash.
Outside medicine, critical condition describes anything severely damaged or imperiled: The bridge is in critical condition.
Acute care ward
- ventilatorMechanical breathing apparatus
- life supportSystems maintaining vital functions
- comaUnwakeable unconsciousness
- vital signsMeasurable life indicators
cardiac arrest · trauma · intubation · sepsis · organ failure · resuscitation · sedation · monitoring
Risking death
- graveSerious and worrying
- direExtremely serious or urgent
- seriousWeighty and requiring attention
- acuteIntensely severe or perceptive
precarious · perilous · guarded · deteriorating · worsening · declining · grim · touch and go
Emergency medical transport
- paramedicsEmergency medical technicians
- 911Crisis response number
- ERAcute care department
- triageSeverity-based prioritization
first responders · medevac · trauma center · stabilize · emergency room · casualty · lifesaving · crash cart
Remaining in expectation
- updatesNewly provided information
- vigilPurposeful nighttime wakefulness
- hopingDesiring with expectation
- remains to be seenOutcome not yet known
ICU
Acute care ward
- ventilatorMechanical breathing apparatus
- life supportSystems maintaining vital functions
- comaUnwakeable unconsciousness
vital signs · cardiac arrest · trauma · intubation · sepsis · organ failure · resuscitation · sedation · monitoring · shock
life-threatening
Risking death
acute · precarious · perilous · guarded · deteriorating · worsening · declining · grim · touch and go · hanging by a thread
ambulance
Emergency medical transport
- paramedicsEmergency medical technicians
- 911Crisis response number
- ERAcute care department
triage · first responders · medevac · trauma center · stabilize · emergency room · casualty · lifesaving · crash cart · gurney
waiting
Remaining in expectation
- conditionsweather conditions, environmental conditions, living conditions, working conditions, medical conditions
- emergencies911, ambulance, emergency, emergency room, ER
- medical outcomessurvival rate, cure rate, mortality, death rate, remission
critical conditionstable condition
Neither worsening nor improving
good condition · out of danger · stable · stabilized · fair condition
critical conditionout of the woods
Beyond immediate danger
recovering · on the mend · improving · convalescing · getting better
condition, critical, uncritical, hypercritical, uncritically, overcritical, noncritical, criticality, criticalness