Essential Medical English Vocabulary for Emergencies: Talk to Your Doctor Confidently!

- This lesson is also in my e-book.

So if you want to practice this more,

you can get my ebook on patrion.com/papateachme.

The link is in the description.

There's also a test at the end

so make sure you remember all

of the vocabulary you just learned,

because I hope you don't get sick, but if you do get sick,

you need to be able to explain what's happening.

Let's get started.

To start we're going to talk about your bones

and your blood.

If you have an emergency,

probably there is something wrong with one of these.

I don't know, I'm not a doctor, but what can go wrong?

Well with your bone, if it

(bone breaking)

like here, hmm, maybe she was wrestling, I don't know,

but her bone

(bone breaking)

that happened, she can say I in the past,

broke my leg.

I broke my leg.

So break in present, past, broke.

And we can use that verb three,

the past participle as an adjective to describe it

broken, my leg is broken.

That bone broke.

My leg is broken.

You can also describe this as fracture

is the noun and the verb.

You fractured your leg.

You have a fracture, same with break.

You have a break.

You broke your leg.

The adjectives your leg is fractured,

your leg is broken and they all mean

(bone breaking)

something else.

I think this happens to some people multiple times.

I'm not sure.

You know when their arm is not in the correct position,

it's not in the correct place?

This is what we call,

the verb is dislocate.

For example, she dislocated her shoulder,

as a noun just put ION.

So quick question, quick practice.

Have you ever broken or dislocated something in your body?

Let me know down there.

And then we have blood, pronunciation, say it with me,

blood, it's an, ah, sound blood, well done.

When something damages you in general,

like a break or something like this,

you can call it an injury.

That's the general word.

But specifically, when we're talking about blood,

then we talk about a wound, that's a noun.

I have a wound.

Look at this wound, so much blood.

Pronunciation, wound.

Again, this is when blood is showing

not just a break without blood, that's not a wound.

That's an injury, yes,

but a wound is more specifically with blood.

Now blood that's that red delicious drink right there.

But what's the verb when blood comes out?

To bleed, say it with me, bleed.

A sentence could be I'm bleeding, you're bleeding,

she's bleeding.

Something like that.

The past of bleed is bled.

For example, she cut her arm and it bled a lot.

Now what happens if you don't clean a wound?

Ah, I forgot to mention, if your skin is broken,

blood comes out.

The noun for that break in your skin is a cut, a cut.

That's the noun also the verb.

So I cut myself.

Ooh, yeah, really good verb because cut, cut, cut.

Never changes, it's a good irregular verb.

If you don't clean a cut, a wound,

then after some time it will get dirty

and maybe change color and maybe smell really bad.

Then you have an infection.

That's the noun.

What's the adjective?

Infected, your wound is infected

because you didn't clean it.

You know that white stuff that comes out really gross,

it's really disgusting, that a white or yellow,

sometimes that stuff, that's called puss, puss.

It sounds gross to even say the word.

Now maybe there's no wound,

there's no blood, no broken bone.

But you know sometimes when you're playing sports

or you're running, or if you're like me

and you're stupid just walking somewhere

and you, ah,

maybe your ankle moves in a way that it shouldn't

all the blood goes to that area.

It becomes big and painful, swollen, that's the adjective.

That's your ankle.

So she could say my ankle is swollen.

And remember, how did this happen?

Well, she twisted her ankle,

now, very commonly we will say she sprained, regular verb,

she sprained her ankle and now it's swollen.

Have you ever done this?

I have loads of times.

Maybe your injury or your wound is very, very bad

and you need to go to this place.

The doctor might need to use a knife and change something,

fix something.

What do we call this situation?

To have surgery or to have an operation.

And of course you won't be awake.

They will give you some thing to fall asleep,

anesthetic for a general anesthetic, you are asleep.

They also call it,

to put you under.

So the doctor might say, oh,

don't worry, you won't feel anything.

We will put you under.

But of course yet you don't need

to be asleep for everything.

It could be something small like you need surgery here.

In that case, they might make this part have no feeling.

How do you say no feeling?

The adjective numb that means no feeling.

It's dead.

Not dead, dead, but no feeling.

And when they make a small area numb,

they give you a local anesthetic.

So those are the two things,

a local anesthetic to make a small area numb,

a general anesthetic to make you go to sleep.

I haven't had the local anesthetic ever.

Oh yeah I have, for teeth stuff.

Like if you go to the dentist,

they give you that's the same thing, a local anesthetic.

Yeah, okay, so yeah, I've had both, have you?

What did you have?

Why?

What was the surgery for?

And by the way, for more surgery vocabulary,

you can click here to go watch a full video about that.

You might have heard the expression to be under the weather.

We don't actually often use this expression.

I mean, we use it, but it's not as common

as those idioms books want you to think.

Usually we just say,

I'm ill, that standard.

Something inside you doesn't feel good.

You are ill.

You feel ill.

I'm ill, pronunciation, if you say this I'm ill,

you sound like a robot, yeah?

So let's connect the speech, I'm ill, I'm ill.

See how you say it, copy me.

I'm ill.

Nice.

You also have the option of what I do

is the L you can change the sound in British English

from an L to an L.

It sounds like this.

I'm ill, I'm ill.

Dude what's up?

I'm ill, I'm sick.

It means the same as I'm ill.

You can choose which one you want and they're both fine.

I'm unwell, it means the same, but just to be safe,

use those, you'll be fine.

You never need to say this.

You might hear it, but you don't need to say it.

This one is very useful.

I'm run down, I'm feeling run down.

That's because you are working too much.

You're studying too much.

You're not sleeping enough.

You feel super, super stressed, tired, no energy.

You're run down.

So there's more context with that word than these.

These are general.

That one is like, I've been working so much

and I'm feeling very run down.

My immune system is a toilet.

Now, if you feel ill, sick, unwell or run down,

what exactly is going on in your body?

Let's have a look.

If something is ow, it hurts

or usually muscle related things

you might say it aches.

If it's something with your skin, it might be sore.

These two are verbs, hurt, ache.

So it hurts, it aches.

But so that's an adjective.

So it's sore.

How can we use this?

If you're ill, maybe ow.

I've got a headache.

Be careful of the pronunciation.

It's ache, not H, ache, headache.

(items dinging)

tooth ache, I've got a tooth ache, it really hurts.

For this area when you ow,

this part is your throat and it's sore.

Ow.

Practice the pronunciation with me.

Sore throat, throat.

Now, sometimes I glottalized that T you can too.

It's perfectly fine.

Throat, throat.

That's an option, sore throat, sore throat,

I've got a sore throat.

Maybe this area hurts.

You would say, I have a stomach ache.

I've got a stomach ache.

Hmm, but also if you have a stomach ache, what happens next?

What is the reason for your stomach ache?

Maybe you ate something really bad.

It made you feel ill.

So in that case, you probably have

food poisoning.

So yeah, you eat something bad,

you get stomach ache, and then,

kill, I don't have a brown pen

so this is gonna get gross.

Maybe this happens, this is called diarrhea

when your poo is like water or coffee

and it just (indistinct) everywhere.

Yeah, British English with the O,

American English, just remove the, O it doesn't matter.

You can use either.

Now, maybe all the bad stuff comes out the back,

but maybe it comes out your mouth.

In that case, this,

(speaker vomiting)

we have a few names.

So in British English, we can call it as a noun, sick.

So yeah, you can feel sick.

Like you have a cold or the flu, you feel sick.

But as a noun, you look at the floor and oh, no,

there is some sick on the floor.

You can also call it vomit.

That is the more medical term.

When you talk to your doctor, vomit, it's regular.

So vomited in the past, last night I vomited

because I had food poisoning, for example.

Another more casual word is puke.

It's not formal, it's more casual.

So, ugh, last night I was feeling awful

I puked five times.

Yeah.

So a difficult pronunciation.

Let's have a look.

This one diarrhea.

Say it with me, diarrhea.

Nice.

When was the last time that you puked?

For me I can't remember the last time I puked.

No, I can.

I was drinking and you know, when your friend is like,

just drink this one more

and that's it, game over, yeah,

I was puking all night and now

I can never drink Bailey's again.

Okay, I think you're ready for the test now.

Now on your piece of paper or in your notes,

write one, two, three, four.

You are going to watch four people see a doctor.

I want you to take notes.

What is wrong with each patient?

Then after you can compare notes with a friend,

compare notes with your classmates,

whoever else studies English.

(upbeat music)

- Ah, how can I help you?

- Well, so I was playing rugby yesterday.

- [Doctor] Rugby, right, rough game.

- Well, I hit something pretty hard

and my shoulder came out.

I think it's dislocated.

I hurt my hand, I can't move it.

I think it's broken.

- Right.

- I also twisted my ankle a lot

and what's now swollen.

I think it's sprained.

- Right?

Or your hand may just be fractured.

- No, I think it feels like a full break.

Have a look, it's.

- Does it hurt?

- Ow!

- I had to check.

I might try no ice cube on it.

See if that makes any difference.

If not, I may need to amputate.

(dramatic music)

We'll try this out

and it doesn't actually make a lot of difference.

- It's not helping.

- Right now, I'm gonna have to perform surgery

and remove the pain.

- Are you even a real doctor?

- Yes of course I am.

I've got a piece of doctor paper here.

- You mean a degree?

- Well, whatever it is, see what I mean?

So above board and official.

- So surgery is my only option?

- Yeah, amputation, remove from the wrist the hand.

Yes, it won't hurt.

Don't worry, I'll use plenty of anas, anastay, Anastasia.

- Anesthetic?

- Anesthetic, yes.

Plenty of anesthetic.

So you won't feel much at all really.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Okay, so if you'd like to wait outside in the waiting room.

- Okay fine.

- Okay.

- Thanks, thanks doctor.

- You're most welcome.

I'll see you in a bit, okay?

(calm music)

- Okay, so what's troubling you?

- Well, week I've been, I've been pooing quite a bit.

About every five minutes I poo,

it comes out like coffee and I've had awful diarrhea.

- Oh, God.

That is really gross.

Did you, do you have to tell me that?

- Well, you are a doctor, aren't you?

- I am a doctor, yes, but I mean, that's disgusting.

I didn't need to know that.

It actually could be food poisoning.

Have you been eating anything on you recently?

- Yes, I've been licking a lot of things

like toilet handles and toilet seats.

- [Doctor] Toilet seats, any particular reason?

- Because I read that keyboards have more bacteria on them.

- Than toilet seats?

- That's correct.

- Wait outside, would you,

in the reception area I'll deal with you later.

- Thanks doctor.

- Yes.

(playful music)

- All right, so, Jesus, everything all right?

- No, the last week I've been quite ill.

I've had a, I think it's a cold.

My head hurts a lot.

I have a headache.

My throat hurts awfully, I have the sore throat,

glands quite swollen.

- All right, so you have a bit of a sore throat, do you?

- Yes, yes, it's rather painful.

- Let's have a look at your tongue.

(speaker grunting)

There's only one solution to this.

- Antibiotics?

- No, gonna have to amputate.

- Oh.

- So, would you wait out in reception area.

The receptionist will book you in, okay?

Yeah.

(calm music)

- So, comfortable?

- No, I thought it'd be pretty obvious.

I've got, I've been shot.

- Shot, eh?

- Someone shot me.

Well, you can see the wound is quite big.

- Yes, it is a bit.

Well, that's a shame.

- I'm bleeding a lot.

- Are you?

Right, well, all right.

Well, we're gonna have to,

that could very easily get infected.

See?

I've just infected it, look puss.

It's infected.

- All right, so what do we do?

- Well, you're gonna have to wait outside

in the reception area and I'll see if I can

make arrangements for you.

- Okay.

Thank you, doctor.

- Bloody weirdos I've had in today.

- Make sure you practice what you've learned

in the comments.

And if you need more practice,

this lesson is available in my ebook.

It's available on patrion.com/papateachme

and I'll see you in the next class.

(dramatic music)