Come closer…

Closer…

closer…

So I can hit you over the head for calling a gurney a stretcher!

This literally slays me every time I go to the hospital.

This is what is known as a malapropism.

No, not a prolonged erection, the word for that is priapism.

A gurney has wheels.

A stretcher is two long sticks with a fabric sling between them to carry a patient. Two people are required to carry it. One of each end. Otherwise you’d just be dragging the patient with 2 sticks and some fabric. Don’t do that.

No wheels!

A stretcher is used when it would be difficult or impossible to have wheels. And the patient needs a quick in and out rescue.

As on a battlefield.

Somehow the conversation always wends back to healthcare being a battlefield making the blog’s title appropriate.

I don’t mean to do this.

Yes, I get that the words gurney and stretcher are used interchangeably by most people.

But not by me.

You may even get a lecture from me about the difference if you tell me to get the stretcher when you really want the gurney.