Too dehydrated for a drip?

[Somethingsosimple]

My poor very elderly grandmother has been suffering from very severe stomach pain. Been seen by paramedics and GP today who prescribed rest and omprezole.Gone down hill and how discoverd after a second ambulance called that she had kidney infection and severe dehydration. She is hospital but apparently they can’t get a iv into her. What will happen next?

Sorry she (and you are going through that)
To answer your question.
Lots of goes by lots of different people until someone wins. (We had a child reach 17 attempts recently). If the anaesthetists don't win (and they usually do) they may put a central line (big special IV access) in (often through the neck or groin).
If she were a child, she would get her IV antibiotics as an injection(but I'm not sure if they do that to adults they can't cannulate).
In the meantime there are other options such as encouraging oral fluids if possible.
If at any point she makes a dramatic recovery, attempts at cannulation will be stopped.
People will be constantly assessing the risk/benefit balance. They will only be having lots of attempts if she really really needs access.

I have awful veins. I've twice had to go into theatre where an anaesthetist has found one using an ultrasound. A central line in the neck is an maybe an alternative too. I've had one one twice, once under general anaesthetic and once while in ICU when I was awake. I don't think they'd put one in on a normal ward.

putting it bluntly and I of course don't want to scare you - I'd fight to keep trying with the drip as she could pass away through dehydration. A lot of elderly people have low fluids and then get uti's and unfortunately pass away. I know a few people it's happened too. Is your grandmother able to drink? If not can you slowly syringe water into her mouth?

I recently was in hospital having my second baby and was nil by mouth from 8ish in the morning, when they tried to get a cannula in around 4ish the anaesthetist struggled like crazy and it really hurt too.

Hope that's some help. If she's anything like most women she will be totally fine.

How elderly? Is she suffering from an isolated incident or does she have longer term health concerns.

My mother towards the end of her life, the plan would have been a reasonable number of attempts to get an iv, but if it didn’t happen without trauma, they would have stopped. She didn’t have that particular issue because she had a port at that point, but she did decline other simple procedures.

Thanks for replies. They have managed to get cannula in now. Awaiting ct scan so all very worrying