A LONG time ago, when I was still doing temp work (back in like 1989 or so), I got a stint at a medical records company. Part of my job involved calling the insurance companies to find out why claims were being denied. In many cases it was because the insured had died, so I wrote "Patient Deceased" on the file.
After a fair number of these, I got tired of writing "Patient Deceased", so I started writing new things, like:
Patient died.
Patient croaked.
Patient shuffled off his mortal coil.
Patient kicked the bucket.
Patient has gone to a better world.
Patient is singing in heaven's choir.
Patient passed away.
Patient snuffed it.
Patient bought the farm.
Patient crossed over to the other side.
Patient pushing up daisies.
Patient no longer numbered among the living.
and so forth.
(Eventually someone found a couple of these alternative descriptions and I got in a little bit of trouble for it, but it was only a temp job anyway.)
