Perfect Phrases for ESL Everyday Situations
CHAPTER 
Emergency Room and Hospital Care
Hopefully, you or your loved ones may never need emergency medical care or a hospital stay, but if you do, you must be prepared to communicate quickly, clearly, and effectively. Do not wait until an emergency to know and understand essential phrases.
In the United States, you dial 9-1-1 on the telephone to reach an emergency operator who can coordinate help for you. The number you call is pronounced “nine-one-one,” not “nine-eleven.” To Americans and many others, “nine eleven” refers to the date of September (the ninth month) 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
If you hear “Call 9-1-1!” it means to call those numbers on a telephone.
Reasons to call 9-1-1 include police and fire emergencies, which are covered in Part 3, Chapters 12 and 13, as well as true medical emergencies. Don’t confuse 9-1-1 with 4-1-1, which is for information—specifically, finding out telephone numbers—or 0 for operator, which is for telephone problems only.
Phrases You May Hear if You Call 9-1-1
What is your emergency? Do you have a medical emergency? What is your full name? Are you injured? Do you need an ambulance? Are you___________? bleeding dizzy ill sick weak What is your relationship to the victim? Is the victim breathing? Can he/she speak? Are his/her airways blocked? Look inside his/her mouth. Do you know___________(mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, CPR)? Someone can talk you through these procedures, if you ___________(aren’t sure about, don’t know how to use) them. Where are you? What is your street address? Do you know the cross street? There is an ambulance on the way. The EMTs will help you. Remain at the scene until the emergency vehicle arrives. Do not move the victim. Keep the victim warm, if possible. Where___________(are you, is this emergency, is this happening)?If you call 9-1-1, be brief. Say what you have to say and what the operator needs to hear in order to get you help as soon as possible. If a person who is fluent in English is with you, give him/her the phone, but don’t take the time to go look for someone. Answer all the questions you are asked by the professional on the phone as best you can, and do what that person tells you to do until help arrives.
Phrases You Say if Calling 9-1-1
I need help! Hurry, send help! This is an emergency! Please hurry! There has been___________(an auto, a car, a motorcycle, a boating, a train, a swimming) accident. I have chest pains. I can’t breathe. I have had an accident. I___________(fell down the stairs and hurt my back, slipped on a wet floor and think I broke my arm). My daughter is choking. My son is choking on a piece of meat, and I can’t get it out.Sometimes people with serious medical issues go to the emergency room at a hospital on their own, by themselves, or by car if they are able to. There is reserved parking for the emergency department.
In the emergency room, patients are treated, after being assessed, in the order of the seriousness of their conditions. This method is called triage. Emergency rooms in hospitals are often very crowded, and you may have to wait quite a while before being seen by a nurse or doctor.
Phrases You May Hear in an Emergency Room or at a Reception Desk
What happened? How did you get here? Did you get here by ambulance? Is someone with you? Can they take you home? Should we get a translator for you? Is there someone, a bilingual adult, who can translate for you? The person who translates for you cannot be a child. Have you ever been a patient in this hospital? When were you a patient in this hospital? Do you have___________(medical insurance, Medicare, Medicaid)? Are you responsible for the payment of the bills today? Please___________(fill out, fill in, write, print) ___________(all these papers, both sides of these forms, all the information, the lines highlighted, the information checked). Sign all these forms. We need your signature on these forms. Do you have any questions? Do you need to___________(use our Language Line, call a bilingual friend or relative)? Do you need us to find someone to___________(translate, interpret, act as an interpreter, act as a translator) for you? Who is your___________(nearest, closest)___________ (relative, blood relative, family member)? We need your___________(consent, permission, written consent, signature) to___________(examine, check, take blood from, medically test) you.Phrases You May Hear from a Doctor or Nurse
Are you pregnant? What medications are you on? When was the last time you took these medications? Do you have your medications with you? Do you have a list of your medications? Are you allergic to any medications? Whatever you___________(say, tell us, confide in us) will be___________(private, confidential, released only with your permission). The doctor has checked your___________(test results, x-rays, blood tests). The doctor would like to___________(do more tests, consult with a specialist, keep you here). I would like you to stay until we are sure that you are fully recovered. We would like to treat you as___________(an outpatient, an inpatient).Phrases You May Hear When Leaving a Hospital
Everything___________(is fine, checks out, seems in order). You are free to go. You may go home. You can___________(sign out, be released) from the hospital. If you choose to leave, you must sign yourself out AMA. Please wait for someone to take you___________(to admitting, upstairs, downstairs, to the next step). Do you have___________(your car, a ride home)? Is there someone___________(with you, to drive you home)? You came in an ambulance; do you need transportation home? Should we___________(call someone to pick you up, get a taxicab for you, make other arrangements)? You will have to go downstairs in a wheelchair and with a ___________(nurse, aide, hospital employee).The move from an emergency room to a hospital stay or even back home is a traumatic transition. You have been through an ordeal and may be nervous, frightened, scared, or worried. Certainly, you will be worn out. Sometimes being admitted to the hospital is a precaution or because of a minor issue. Remain positive and calm; this attitude could even improve your condition.
Idioms and Other Vocabulary
Admitting: hospital department where you/they fill out forms before you become a patient in a hospital
Airways blocked: breathing passages not clear
AMA: against medical advice
Ambulance: special vehicle used to take sick or hurt people to the hospital
Assessed: judged, decided on
Blood relative: a person related to you by birth
Breathing problems: trouble breathing without help
Brief: short
By oneself (or myself, or yourself, or himself, or herself, or ourselves, or yourselves, or themselves): alone
Calm: relaxed
Can speak: is able to talk after the injury or illness
Choking: unable to breathe
Confuse: mistake one thing and think it is a different thing
CPR (see also mouth-to-mouth resuscitation): cardiopulmonary resuscitation, breathing into the victim’s mouth and pushing on his/her chest to restart breathing and the heart beating
Cross street: the street that meets your street at the corner and leads to and from your street
Crowded: filled with many people or things
Dizzy: feeling unbalanced, not steady on your feet
Emergency room (also emergency department): section of a hospital that treats patients who are seriously injured or sick
EMTs: emergency medical technicians
Fill in (also fill out): give written information asked for on a form
Finding out: getting information
Heart attack: condition when the heart stops working
Hemorrhaging: bleeding very heavily
Inpatient: a person staying in the hospital for at least one night
Interpret: change into another language (Interpret is for spoken language; translate is for written language.)
Keep warm: cover with a blanket, coat, or what you have
Language Line: service that makes interpreters and translators available on the telephone
Look for: try to locate
Medicaid: U.S. government program that helps pay for medical care for people without money to pay
Medicare: U.S. government program that helps pay for medical care for older people
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation: part of CPR, breathing into someone’s mouth to start up his/her breathing
On one’s own: without help
Ordeal: very difficult situation
Outpatient: a person who comes to the hospital for an emergency or even for a surgery but goes home without staying overnight
Precaution: preventative action taken to stop something dangerous from happening
Print: put down letters one by one without joining or connecting them
Procedures: way of doing certain things
Professional: person trained to perform certain work
Quite a while: a lot of time
Relationship: connection, the way two people are connected
Remain: stay, don’t leave
Reserved: saved for
Responsible for: in charge of
Scene: place where something happened
Signature: your name signed for legal papers
Specialist: doctor who treats one area of medicine or one disease (for example, a cardiologist treats heart disease, and a pulmonologist treats diseases of the lungs).
Stroke: illness in which blood in an artery stops moving
Talk you through: give you instructions in how to do something
Transition: change
Translate: change into another language (Translate is for written language; interpret is for spoken language.)
Traumatic: very disturbing
Treated: taken care of medically
Triage: system of giving emergency medical care according to the seriousness of the injury or illness
True medical emergencies: serious accidents or serious illness, such as heart attacks, strokes, choking, breathing problems, and hemorrhaging
Victim: person who is ill (sick) or very hurt
Weak: not physically strong
Wheelchair: a chair with wheels used to wheel someone who cannot or should not walk when leaving a hospital (After someone has been a patient, hospitals have a rule that they not walk or leave without a hospital employee.)
Worn out: very tired
Write: Form letters by hand that are attached, not printed separately