Secret Codes You Aren't Meant To Know

Pssst... wanna hear the true meaning of some secret codes you aren't meant to know? Then tune in - unless you're an FLK!

Legal Stuff.

[DavidFMayerPhD]

I knew a woman who "rode the rails" during the Great Depression at age 14.

I asked her about sexual assault, and she told me that the male hoboes were always perfect gentlemen. None of them ever did anything that was inappropriate for dealing with a 14-year-old girl. That was a shock, but she lived through it and was not a liar.

[BloodyBay]

Years ago, I was talking about secret codes with my father — who was a paramedic — and apparently Medical personnel and First Responders have far more code words than this! They no longer use "DOA" in front of the families of patients or victims, thanks to too many TV shows telling everyone what it means, so they'll say things like "DOS" ("Dead On Sight" or "Dead On Scene"), "DRT" ("Dead Right There") or "DRD" ("Dead Right Dere") instead. And hospital staff will secretly alert each other to a patient's death with phrases like "Transferred to the ETC" ("Eternal Care Unit"), "Transferred to the X Floor" (where X = the number of floors in the hospital +1, so "Transferred to the 11th Floor" in a hospital which only has ten floors means "Gone to Heaven"), "Healthy Tumor/Goober" (patient just died from cancer), "Transferred to Sublevel M" (the morgue), "Patient [assuming/transitioning to] RT" ("Room Temperature") or "TMB" ("Too Many Birthdays, " patient dead from old age or old-age-related maladies).

[deckardcanine]

I read an anecdote from a Disney World employee. They'd seen a naked toddler take a dump in public and run off. Not remembering the proper code, they reported, "We have a Code Pooh, and Piglet is on the loose."

[LilyStarstrider]

What you are calling a drifter is specifically the Hobo lifestyle.

Hobos actually had complex ethics and were rather willing to work to earn their keep, opposed to tramps, who traveled but avoided work, and a bum neither travels or works.

One of the most fascinating things was their rules regarding runaway children: they would always strive to help a child in need, and would encourage them to return home.

[fostergameiro]

I'm watching this before it gets taken down by the FBI.

[wentaoguan]

put the 'nothing worth stealing' mark outside your home yourself, checkmate.

[sweethaven]

5:03 My Grandmother had lived by train tracks growing up [born 1916] and she told me about these signs. Her mother would feed the people who asked. There was a building by their house, and as I recall it did have a symbol on it. Unfortunately I don’t remember what it was. My Grandmother’s house where she grew up is no longer there unfortunately. Thanks for sharing!!

[cindystrachan]

My first job as an RN after graduation was at a level one trauma center.
One of the official abbreviations (the only kind you were allowed to use in charting) was GOK - God Only Knows. Used when the doctors were clueless about the cause or treatment of a condition.
My Dad used to tell me about the symbols carved into the gate post at his childhood home’s back fence that meant hobos could find a free meal there. Despite not having much (it was the Depression era) themselves his mother never turned anyone in need of food away.

[RJ.the.artist]

As someone who is a frequent flyer at hospitals, that code for security varies. It can be a code strong, if it’s in psychiatric ward, it could be a code silver, if it’s an armed assailant, but it depends on the region and the health care group. Also depends on the nation.

[sylvisterling]

Other medical "codes", GOMER = Get Out Of My Emergency Room - basically an obstreperous or difficult patient or one that is a pain to handle. DS = "Drug Seeker". ETKM = "Every Test Known to Man" When a patient has had the run of tests, the DX (diagnosis) and the DDX (differential diagnosis) could be GOK = "God Only Knows". A "crock" is a patient that is really REALLY sick (short for broken crockery). and then, at the very end, the patient can be said to be "circling the drain". Q-sign means the patient is comatose or completely out of it. The letter Q looks like an open mouth with a tongue hanging out. Now one that COULD get families upset, if they see it on the patient's chart, but is actually not an insult is SOB. Shortness of Breath! "Gorked" is another term for Q-sign.

[DarkRose]

As someone who worked in a hospital, I’ve never heard the ones mentioned. The most common ones are colors or code Adam.

[LordMondegrene]

Doctors & nurses say, "Patient made the O sign ." for a peaceful death, and,
"Patient made the Q sign." for a hard death.

[jasminejohnston]

Also, in Canada, hospitals use codes based on colours and here’s what those codes mean:

Code Blue- Heart/Respiration stop, patient needs CPR
Code Red- Fire
Code Yellow- Missing patient
Code Pink- Infant missing from the NICU
Code Brown- Chemical spill
Code White- Combative patient
Code Black- Bomb threat
Code Silver- Firearm threat
Code Aqua- Flood
Code Green- Evacuation in progress
Code Orange- Mass casualties, expect multiple patients
Code Omega- A patient has lost a dangerous amount of blood and needs an immediate transfusion

[workablob]

My late Mother-in-Law was a nurse and they would use Dr. Grimm (Somebody coded) and Dr. Allcome (All hands on deck).

[howardmaryon]

Travelling to and from work on the London Underground for over 45 years, I can tell you that, up untill recently, a bucket of sand was hooked on the wall of every platform and corridor. The buckets are gone, but you can still find the brackets on the walls.

[MissInsanity]

Been in retail for around 6 years, and in almost every store I worked at, if we caught someone who was acting sus, we would make an announcement on the intercom stating "Security check, Line 1" to deter them from stealing anything (I mostly worked in sketchy areas, which I usually didn't know until later on as I was still new to the area, or I applied for the job as a last resort, so it was pretty common to hear it being announced). Later on, the MOD (manager on duty) would check the cameras, and if they did steal something, the MOD would call the authorities and have them trespassed from the property.

[StrayShaz]

Idk, i disagree with the people in these comments saying revealing the codes is a mistake. Coz knowing the codes isnt the problem. its how you, as a person, react to them. If you hear "inspector sands" and start screaming "omg that means fiirreee everyone get out!!" Then ofc thats gonna be bad and cause panic. But if you hear it but still ignore it and act normal then there wont be any issues. So yeah, knowing the codes isnt bad. Its how you react to them if you hear them irl.

[lancerevell]

During my Airforce days as an avionics tech on jet aircraft, we had some codes. "CND" meant "could not duplicate", if the tech couldn't get the reported problem to appear. A "Short Between The Headsets" indicated the pilot was the problem. "Midnight Acquisition" meant we visited another maintenance unit's turf at night, to "liberate" some part that we needed and didn't want to have to await delivery through the supply system. 😅

[virtone]

While in the hospital with family visiting my grandmother, the skies started getting really dark and there were tornado watches starting in the area. In this wing, all the patient rooms had one side entirely of glass so we had a great view of the darkening skies. We asked a nurse about where we'd go if there was a tornado. She said there's no tornado danger right now, if there were a tornado warning they'd have announced a "CODE WHITE" over the intercom. Not 30 seconds later, we hear Code White! Code White! over the intercom. Instantly the staff scramble to roll all the patients into the hallway and close the room doors, to protect us from flying glass if windows start to get broken. Nobody was told what was happening, and we may have been the only patients/visitors that knew what was going on. I don't know if that's a universal hospital code but it fits in with their other "color codes" like Code Blue etc.

[victoriajohnson]

My favorite medical one is CTD. It stands for "circling the drain" and is very descriptive of a doomed patient who is going downhill, slowly at first, and then more and more rapidly towards the end.