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Whenever giving a report to the hospital, particularly over the radio, I heavily recommend describing your short-of-breath patient as “short of breath,” “dyspneic,” or “having difficulty breathing” as opposed to “respiratory distress.”  It turns out that it is far too easy for the hospital to hear “respiratory distress” as “respiratory arrest,” which causes a flurry of totally unnecessary preparations on the part of the hospital.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny at the time.