flatliner

English

Etymology

From flatline +‎ -er.

Noun

flatliner (plural flatliners)

1. (fishing) An angler who uses a flatline.
2. (rare) A patient with no heartbeat.
   • 1996, Bill Butterworth, Butterworth gets his life together, page 144:

     […] unless my heart stops, okay? Nada — unless I'm a flatliner."

   • 1998, George Mckinney, Cross the Line:

     In spite of his dramatic highs and the canyon lows, Kurt was a flatliner—a patient with no heartbeat.

   • 2011, Laurence Street, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology, page 125:

     Though occasionally a “flatliner” can be revived with a defib, it is most commonly used to change the uncoordinated contractions of the heart (fibrillation) into a normal sinus rhythm—that is, to defibrillate the heart.