Dictionary definition of “Harvard death”

Harvard death

n. a death which occurs despite all symptoms being treated successfully or all medical test results appearing normal. Subjects: English, Medical

Editorial Note: This term is often explained to mean “the operation was successful but the patient died.”

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Citations: 1985 Dena Kleiman New York Times (July 15) “Doctors Ask, Who Lives? When To Die?” p. B1: He spoke about how some doctors make a game of resuscitation; how the challenge for some young doctors becomes having patients die a so-called “Harvard” death, in which their blood gas numbers perfectly match those given in textbooks. 1989 Anne Burson-Tolpin Medical Anthropology Quarterly (Sept.) “Fracturing the Language of Biomedicine: The Speech Play of U. S. Physicians” vol. 3, no. 3, p. 287: To die “a Harvard death” (meaning the physicians have managed to normalize the laboratory test values but failed to help the patient). 1998 C.J. Peters Virus Hunter (Apr. 13) p. 284: When I was an intern, we used to refer to this as a “Harvard Death”: you kept pumping meds until all the cultures were negative and test results were normal but the patient still succumbed. 2005 Perri Klass New York Times (Apr. 5) “In a Pile of Papers, the Ghost of a Once-Healthy Child”: I thought about that bitter medical student joke, the “Harvard death,” in which all the lab results are perfect, all the electrolytes and body chemistry numbers “in the boxes”—as the patient dies.

Posted 13 Apr 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend