Lowest H/H I ever saw...

neneRN, BSN, RN · May 5, 2004

Lowest Hgb ever saw was 2- little lady came in by EMS, found unresponsive. I remember the ER doc saying that she must have been losing blood for quite some time to still be alive- body kind of gradually adapted to the blood lost. She was unbelieveably pale. She was heme negative by rectal and NGT- seemed to be bleeding lady partslly. I don't know what they ever figured was going on- we just dumped a bunch of blood in her in the ER and sent her up to the unit.

Gompers, BSN, RN · May 5, 2004

Lowest HCT I saw in a critical baby was 14 (we go by HCT instead of HGB in my NICU because HGB isn't always accurate in newborns). The kid was crashing (very septic and was bleeding into the brain) so they pushed the blood and it was shocking how fast he pinked up.

Lowest HCT I saw in a "grower-feeder" preemie that was otherwise stable was 17. We'd been telling the docs for over a week that the baby was deathly pale and completely exhausted, but the docs kept saying that they didn't want to know the HCT because they didn't want to transfuse! Babies have high retic counts and usually the docs don't want to "turn off" the bone marrow by transfusing...but HELLO!!!!!! 17???????? (He was a new baby by the time the blood was in...all red-faced and screaming!)

NeuroICURN · May 6, 2004

The lowest I've ever seen was while I was in nursing school. There was a guy admitted with an H/H of 4/14. He was lethargic, to say the least!!!

gwenith, BSN, RN · May 6, 2004

I have seen a Heamoglobin level of 2.6 on a patient who was walking - many years ago in Haemodialyis (Okay so mostly it was haemodiluted) in the days before erythropoetin. Her HB was so low we could have named her red cells individually!!! Poor lady I remember she wanted desperately to go on a flight over the Antartic but her HB was too low and the airlines would not take her. It was to be her last holiday. She never did make it - she died just before she was due to go but in one of those bizarre twists the Flight over the Antartic crashed into Mount Erebus and all were killed. Even if we had got her well enough she would have been on that flight - some people are not meant to live past a certain time.

Burnt Out, ASN, RN · May 6, 2004

I think the lowest crit I've seen was in an elderly gentleman with possible pneumonia was 16. Turned out he had some sort of pleural infection with histoplasmosis... :uhoh21:

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 6, 2004

3.5 on a litle 90something lady that DROVE herself to the hospital feeling a bit tired. Yes, in Florida....that bizarro state.

I have had cancer patients down below 2, but by that time, hopefully we will be stopping blood draws for comfort care. Ocasionally a family member will want to know the H/H for curiousity ( because , like when will they die), but the MDs will refuse.

They always ask"How low can it go, before.....".....UHHH, Zero!!!!

renerian, BSN, RN · May 6, 2004

She dropped to 4. Gastric CA.

renerian

nursenatalie, ADN, RN · May 6, 2004

I got a patient on my surgical floor, direct admit from home with a hemoglobin of 4.8, pt alert and oriented just got dizzy when she stood up and went to dr. office. Dont know why she was so low just pumped a few units of blood in her that night and wasnt assigned to her again? She was so amazing because she was fairly asymptomatic (must have been a slow bleed) but I have seen some post op bleeds get down to 6 and look pretty sketchy.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · May 6, 2004

Had a guy come in with it down to a 2

drew his blood and you could actually see light through it

hx perniceous anemia and not taking his meds for yrs

c/o only of weakness and DOE

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 6, 2004

2.6 also, GIB, amazingly the man walked into the ER, chief complaint of being "weak". Duh.

KarafromPhilly · May 6, 2004

A young woman came up to the floor with FOUR IV sites--I said WTF? She told me that the ER nurse had told her that she coudl have died and that if she had waited any longer to come to the ER it would have been too late. I looked up her lab values and saw an 8.5--I thought, "Hm, that's not a bad hemoglobin." I looked more carefully--that was her HEMATOCRIT. Wow. Hemoglobin was 2.9.