life-threatening
/ˈlʌifˌθrɛt(ə)nɪŋ
/adjective
(Especially of an illness or injury) potentially fatal: cancer is not the only life-threatening condition...
- And it's not just those suffering from life-threatening illness who are offered such help.
- The basic fact may nowhere be as true as when we are tested by a life-threatening illness.
- The man was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries - a deep wound to his side had punctured a lung.