Awake GlideScope intubation in a critically ill pediatric patient

We report a challenging case of a 10-year-old boy with history of biventricular heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, severe asthma, and obesity with a BMI of 37. He presented to our hospital in acute decompensated heart failure. Our anesthesia team was consulted by the pediatric intensivist for urgent airway management in this rapidly deteriorating, premorbid patient. We describe here the use of the GlideScope(®) in an awake pediatric patient of ASA 4E status with a potentially difficult airway who required to remain in the seated position and thus necessitating a face-to-face approach.