Q Sign

In medical slang, the Q-sign is a dead patient or a patient with extreme morbidity. The Q is a reference to the patient's tongue hanging out of its mouth, making a Q sign.

Medical lingo. An extension of the O-sign from the book, The House of God. An ill patient in an ICU setting has their mouth hanging open, with their tongue hanging out, stimulating a capital Q visually. It is quietly considered along a decline from O-sign, to Q-sign, to intubation or death.