Lucy woke up this morning crying and gasping for air. Her lips and tongue were completely blue, she was cyanotic. Her oxygen saturation was in the low 40’s and she was basically in respiratory failure. We rushed to get doctors immediately to intervene. Lucy was given extra oxygen to bring her saturation levels back up and an arterial blood gas was quickly taken to determine what might be wrong.
pH is a scale that measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is. The scale ranges from 1 to 14 with 1 being very acid, 7 neutral and 14 very alkaline. The pH of your blood is extremely important. The ideal pH level for your blood is right around 7.35 and your body goes to enormous lengths to maintain this level. If the pH of your blood falls below 7.35, the result is a condition called acidosis, a state that leads to central nervous system depression. Severe acidosis, where blood pH falls below 7.00, can lead to a coma and even death.
Lucy’s pH level this morning was 7.099.
Luckily, she was stabilized and given bicarbonate, then immediately transported back to the pediatric intensive care unit and we have been here with her all day. The ICU doctors are closely monitoring and working to determine what could have caused Lucy’s respiratory status to decline so rapidly and what might be causing her pulmonary edema. We all hope to have answers soon. Please continue to keep Lucy in your thoughts.
