We report the case of a 49-year-old male who suffered from a myocardial infarction with subsequent cardiac arrest. The emergency medical team began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, including defibrillation of ventricular fibrillation. Although a return of spontaneous circulation was achieved after approximately 30 min of continued efforts, the patient went back into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and resuscitation had to be resumed. On admission, the patient was severely acidotic with a pH of 6.67, lactatemia of 19 mmol/L, and pronounced hypercapnia (pCO2 127 mmHg). Despite the poor prognosis, all possible efforts including coronary intervention and therapeutic hypothermia were carried out and the patient made a quick recovery with discharge from the intensive care unit on day 5. Survival of extreme acidosis, such as in this case, is rare. This is the first report of survival with good neurologic outcome in a patient with myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, and pH of under 6.7 on admission at the clinic.
Keywords: acidosis; cardiac failure; myocardial infarction; resuscitation.