Definition

1. Noun:
   • Medical equipment that assists or replaces vital bodily functions: A system of medical technologies designed to sustain life when critical organs (like the heart, lungs, or kidneys) fail. It is used to keep a patient alive who would otherwise die.
   • Equipment that sustains life in hostile environments: Technology that provides necessary conditions (like breathable air, water, temperature control) for survival in places where these are not naturally available, such as in space or underwater.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The car crash victim was placed on life support at the hospital.
  • After the surgery, she remained on life support for three days.
  • The submarine's life-support system failed, forcing an emergency ascent.
  • Space suits contain compact life-support units for astronauts.

Advanced Usage

• "to be on life support": A common phrase meaning a patient is being kept alive by such medical machinery.
  • The doctors informed the family that he was on life support and his prognosis was poor.
• "to withdraw life support": The medical and ethical decision to disconnect a patient from the equipment, typically when there is no hope of recovery.
  • After extensive testing showed no brain activity, the family made the difficult choice to withdraw life support.

Variants and Related Words

• Life-support system (noun phrase): A more formal or technical term for the equipment, especially in non-medical contexts like aerospace or diving.
  • The spacecraft's life-support system recycles air and water.
• Life-sustaining (adjective): Describing treatment or equipment that maintains life.
  • The court ruled that removing the life-sustaining treatment was permissible.

Synonyms

• Artificial life support: Emphasizes the technological, non-biological nature of the support.
• Ventilator (specific): A machine that assists or controls breathing, a common component of medical life support.
• Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) (specific): A advanced system that oxygenates blood outside the body.

Related Phrases

• Life-support machine: A common alternative phrasing.
  • He was connected to a life-support machine.
• To be kept alive by machines: A descriptive phrase with the same meaning as "to be on life support."

Related Idioms

• "On life support" (figurative): Used metaphorically to describe a project, business, or system that is failing and is only continuing to exist because of external, artificial help.
  • The failing business was on life support, surviving only on bank loans.
  • The peace negotiations are on life support after the latest attack.

Noun

1. medical equipment that assists or replaces important bodily functions and so enables a patient to live who otherwise might not survive
   • the patient is on life support
2. equipment that makes life possible in otherwise deadly environmental conditions
   • the astronauts relied on their life-support systems