I am sorry to you were called out unnecessarily to a pregnant woman with morning sickness. Perhaps her behaviour is an end consequence of the often poor management of the early stages of hyperemesis by doctors and nurses. Treatment is not standardised and there is significant variation in how bad it becomes in terms of weightloss, dehydration and ketosis before hydration and or nutritional support are used. There are several groups of doctors in the world who are trying to get the rest of the medical community to lift their game in relation to HG, in particular to recognise it as a disorder of pregnancy. The American College of O & Gs released a clinical bulletin in April 2004 highlighting that the evidence used to support the long existing theory that it is psychosomatic is "highly questionable at best". HG is viewed as causing the psychological symptoms seen. Speaking from personal experience, it is apparent to the sufferer early on that something is wrong well before sufficient debilitation has occurred to be considered important to many doctors. However a loss of as little as 5% of body weight raises the likelihood of a low birthweight child from 6% to around 30%. Many doctors allow you to lose more like 10% before acting. You have noted that antiemetics can reduce vomiting while nausea remains. Severe nausea itself is still a serious problem because its biology causes aversion to food beyond one's control(rat experiments) I expect this is impractical but if I were the woman concerned I would go to Professor Taylor's Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle upon Tyne as he heads one of the groups of doctors establishing best practice with respect to the use of corticosteroids in the management of HG. If you ever have some spare time www.hyperemesis.org is a useful website about HG. Early treatment of HG is vital as the more intractable it becomes the harder it is to manage.