Bye-bye is the same as the traditional gesture for the word. Open your palm, folding down your fingers, then open your palm again. An ASL alternative for goodbye or bye-bye is to wave your open hand sideways, like a leaf swaying in the wind.

You can also start a conversation with a simple hi or hello, followed by a nice to meet you. These greetings work with Deaf people of all ages. Asking questions is probably the most popular way to start a conversation. You can ask a person’s name, sign yours, ask what school a person attended, and so on.

Say “Hello” Extend your fingers and cross your thumb in front of your palm. Then, starting with your hand in front of your ear, flick it outward and away from your body.

American Sign Language: “shut up” The sign for “shut up” (as in shut your mouth) closes the fingers and the thumb on top of your lips as if representing the closing of your mouth. In the ending position the thumb is pressed up against the fingers (in a flattened “O” handshape). SHUT-UP!

In ASL, the middle finger itself still isn’t a word, but it’s not exactly a gesture either. It’s a part of a word, a morpheme. Signs in ASL have five distinct elements that give them meaning: Location, Palm Orientation, Hand Shape, Movement, and Non-Manual Markers (essentially facial expressions).

Just like ASL, British Sign Language, or BSL, is a visual language used by the Deaf community. As with ASL, BSL also has regional dialects and variations, but unlike ASL, BSL uses two-handed fingerspelling. BSL is considered to be a dialect of BANZSL, or British, Australian, and New Zealand Sign Language.

American Sign Language: “die” DIE / dead: Memory aid: Think of “rolling over in your grave.” Or how about, “Fish turn belly up when they die.” Notes: It is very common to see this sign done with just one hand.

ALS is fatal. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to five years, but some patients may live for years or even decades. (The famous physicist Stephen Hawking, for example, lived for more than 50 years after he was diagnosed.) There is no known cure to stop or reverse ALS.

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All living organisms share several key characteristics or functions: order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing. When viewed together, these characteristics serve to define life.

Consciousness, effective breathing, circulation and skin characteristics sometimes are referred to as signs of life.

“No signs of life were found” means “Three signs of life were not found.” “No sign of life was found” doesn’t always means “Three signs of life were not found.” It may be three, but may be just one sign.

When a patient begins showing signs of life (assuming CPR is already being performed), you should place the into the recovery position. I would not particularly continue CPR until EMS arrives because it can cause more problems. They don’t need to stand after being clinically dead.

As death nears, a person’s eyes may stay open, without blinking. There may be long pauses between breaths. You also may notice some of the following skin changes, which occur as blood circulation slows: The skin may become blue and blotchy.

About two hours after death, the cornea becomes hazy or cloudy, turning progressively more opaque over the next day or two. This obstructs the view of the lens and back of the eye. (See A New Look at a Dead Retina, on page 80.) But this clouding may provide a rough estimate in helping to determine time of death.