Lowest Blood pH

zambezi, BSN, RN · Nov 17, 2004

pH: 6.9 --> then 6.7 after 2 amps bicarb (needless to say, she passed on...)

Lowest pO2 I have seen is 33 (vent/100% FIo2/drawn from A-Line)

CRNAsoon · Nov 17, 2004

7.1 is the lowest I've ever seen. My pt also did not make it.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Nov 17, 2004

6.9. This patient did get through the initial crisis, but never made it out of the ICU.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 17, 2004

6.73 on a teenager with sudden onset CNS collapse. He survived!!

Lowest pO2 I've seen is 27 on a neonate who went on ECMO and eventually died.

Highest pCO2 I've ever seen was 345 (ouch!) in a teenager with BOOP secondary to charcoal aspiration following Tylenol ingestion. She was conscious and c/o headache... Then she crumped. Got a double lung transplant, had multiple near-death experiences, slow recovery only to succumb to CMV pneumonia. Longest suicide I've ever seen.

talaxandra · Nov 17, 2004

I had a newly diagnosed IDDM come in with DKA - her pH was 7.01 and she was managed on the ward! She was unique in several ways - she was 50, was breast feeding her youngest child (aged four), and only had a BSL in the mid-tenties (our scale is different from yours - it's around 450 mg/dL). She had a really healthy diet to start with, which probably helped,a nd she didn't believe she was really that sick until I showed her her labs and told her she should have been in ICU. She survived :)

heartICU · Nov 18, 2004

I have seen a pH of 6.9 and a pO2 of 18. These weren't in the same patient! Neither patient survived.

begalli · Nov 18, 2004

I know we've had those in the 6.something range but I have never personally seen this.

This is one of my favorite things to fix...a respiratory alk/acidosis. It's so rewarding after a couple of RN initiated vent changes.

PJMommy · Nov 19, 2004

pH of 6.8something. Suicide attempt by ingesting antifreeze. Surprisingly, the guy lived. I remember when the first gas came back and we heard the pH, one nurse said "is that even compatible with life?".

AmiK25 · Nov 19, 2004

pH 6.7, pO2 17...trauma patient who did not make it. When I drew the gas, the trauma surgeon kept trying to tell me it was venous and no pO2 can be 17 (we had been basically coding this pt. for an hour). I reminded him that I drew the gas out of the art line that he inserted! He didn't say another word.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Nov 19, 2004

6.7-6.9 Pao2's in low 20's...and unfortunately some of those kids lived.

pricklypear · Nov 19, 2004

6.8-6.9

The 6.9 patient was found unresponsive at home. Gave her amp after amp of bicarb, and had bicarb in her fluids, pH never went up and she died about 6 hours after admission. Coags were super high. IMHO she ingested something (I think rat poison) to commit suicide. This was never proved. She was a "coroner's case" but was not autopsied at the family's request.

The other one was an abdominal postop who did poorly in PACU for too long, and was probably going septic since before surgery. I guess they found stool in her abdomen when they opened her up for surgery. She also died by 6am that morning with her pH never getting better than 7.1. Those were a couple of REALLY bad nights!!