Pedema

We were conducting a maternal mortality audit. My Registrar was presenting a case of a maternal death. She had had severe preeclampsia with a lot of complications. “Her general condition was poor” he said. “Her pulse rate was 110 per minute, respiratory rate was 32 per minute, and blood pressure 180/120 mm Hg. She had moderate pallor and moderate pedema.” Pedema? That was a new one. I have known many generations of resident doctors and generally I can guess what they mean. It was just that I had not anticipated such a word. “Do you mean pedal edema?” I asked. “Yes, Sir. She had moderate pedal edema.” I could see he was tense. His fingers had tremors which I could see from a distance even without wearing mu bifocals. “OK. Relax. Take a couple of deep breaths. Don’t worry. No one is going to hang you.We know you did not kill that woman.” He smiled, took a couple of deep breaths and then continued his presentation. He did not use any unknown words thereafter that day. A month later, we were conducting another maternal mortality audit. A Registrar of another unit was presenting a case of preeclampsia. “…. And she had pedema….” She said. I did not interrupt her. I knew what pedema was. Her hands were trembling too. It must be the tension of presenting a case in front of a large audience, or perhaps grief at the death of a woman. When I narrated the story to my wife, she said “they must be using that word when they SMS one another.” That sounded quite likely. So I asked my Registrar if they SMSed one another about the cases admitted when they were on emergency duty. “No, Sir. We call one another on our mobile phones.” These two Registrars are not sibs. Otherwise I could have put the use of the same word as a family practice. Now I have to speak to the other unit Registrar how she used the word ‘pedema’. I talked to both the Registrars independently. They confirmed that they did not SMS anyone about pedal edema, that they had not heard the word before from anyone else and also from themselves, and they had uttered it when tense. Some linguist can work on this to advance some theory on origin of words.