diagnose septic shock:  

chronic alcoholic mistakenly diagnosed with DT's - expert witness
doctor for plaintiff was questioned and answered as follows, but what
word could the phonetics in the brackets be?


Q.  What about the patient's chronic history of alcoholism? 
A.  This man had severe hypoxemia, blood oxygen dropped to
astonishingly low levels, once in the 40s.  People tend to get
confused, and they manifest mental instability.  That is one of the
sine qua non of acute septic shock.  It should have set off alarm
bells for everything.  And the rule of thumb is that you use
[O-KEM-RACER or OX-KEM-RAISER].  This man came in with a perforated
colon, known, with free air under the diaphragm and guarding and all
the signs and symptoms of acute peritonitis. Therefore, no secondary
diagnosis should be made without ruling out first the possibility that
this was not delirium tremens but rather mental confusion secondary to
septic shock.

---

Clarification of Question by flynfu-ga on 22 May 2004 20:40 PDT

THAT'S IT  "OCCAM'S RAZOR  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!  That's
not the first time you've come through for me, Dr. Bob!!  - Debfu (a
grateful court reporter)

Dear flynfu-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

English scholastic philosopher William of Occam (William Occam, aka
Ocham) (c.1285-c.1349) first came up with the principle that came to
be known as Occam?s Razor. In more modern times this has been
variously referred to in variety of terms: ?law of parsimony?,
?principle of parsimony?, ?parsimony in diagnosis? or better still the
?principle of simplicity?.

What is the ?law of parsimony? and these other names by which it is
also known, you might ask?

Originally: (Lat. parsimonia, from parcere, to save), the name given
to William of Occam's principle " Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter
necessitatem,"
LAW OF PARSIMONY
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PA/PARSIMONY_LAW_OF.htm


The complicated definition is this: 

"A scientific rule that states that if there exists two answers to a
problem or a question, and if, for one answer to be true,
well-established laws of logic and science must be re-written,
ignored, or suspended in order to allow it to be true, and for the
other answer to be true no such accommodation need be made, then the
simpler of the two answers is much more likely to be correct."

Or you may prefer the simpler definition: 

"A principle that states that the simplest explanation that explains
the greatest number of observations is preferred to more complex
explanations".
WHAT IS PARSIMONY ANYWAY?
http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/misc/parsimony.htm

So, in the excerpt you showed us then, the implication of this
person?s answer appears to be that the attendant failed to consider
the obvious when the patient presented with his maladies, many or all
of which apparently seemed (to him at least) consistent with another
known condition.

Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any questions
about my research please post a clarification request prior to rating
the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final comments
and I look forward to working with you again in the near future. Thank
you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


INFORMATION SOURCES

WHAT IS PARSIMONY ANYWAY?
http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/misc/parsimony.htm

WILLIAM OF OCCAM
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/w/wmo1cm.asp

LAW OF PARSIMONY
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PA/PARSIMONY_LAW_OF.htm


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINES USED:

Google ://www.google.com




SEARCH TERMS USED:

OCCAM?S RAZOR

WILLIAM OF OCCAM 

WILLIAM OCCAM

WILLIAM OCHAM

?LAW OF PARSIMONY?

?PRINCIPLE OF PARSIMONY?

?PARSIMONY IN DIAGNOSIS?

?PRINCIPLE OF SIMPLICITY?

thank you for all your work, it was great!!!!! (I wish I could afford a bigger tip!)

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/OCCAMRAZ.html

Also, if possible, I would like to tip Dr_Bob as he DID answer it first!