As a diabetic since the age of 11, I’ve been in hospitals many, many times and most of the time they refuse to give me water for a long time. Once I woke up in ICU so thirsty that I managed to scream “Water!” while trying to climb out of my bed (and was scolded by the nurse for making ‘all that noise’ :rolleyes: ). Now, when your blood sugar climbs to a dangerous level, you have such a horrible thirst you can’t bear it–so why won’t the nurses let you have water?
My theory has always been that they don’t want you to throw it up and make a mess, but surely they’re not all that sadistic.
If you throw up, you could choke on your own vomet.
Or, you could choke on someone else’s vomit.
In the ER? In the ICU? Aren’t they supposed to be looking out for something like that?
…we can’t look out for something like that, because we can’t stay with a patient every moment he or she is in our care.
In ICU, you may have been kept NPO (nothing by mouth) because of a test you were having that required your gut be empty. Sometimes you can have ice chips just to suck on, but it depends on what the test would be.
Basically, though, you have it right: We don’t give you water because we’re afraid you might vomit and aspirate (suck it into your lungs) it. Water in the lungs, get it?
Hope that helped.
Quasi
Thanks all. Yeah, the aspiration/vomit scenario makes sense. Blast it–I wanted to believe all hospital personnel were sadistic psychos! 
How could you tell who’s it was?
[Nigel Tufnel]
It’s not like you can actually dust for vomit.
[/Nigel]