Thanks evad for poiting me to search on "hypernatremic dehydration".
And for Smartaleck and flaglady: personal insult and quoting irrelevant material reflects badly on you, not me.
You only quoted what happend in initial dehydration, NOT what happens,when someone actually dies of it.
"When hypernatremic dehydration occurs, the brain shrinks. Tears of the communicating vessels and hemorrhage may occur. To compensate, the brain produces "idiogenic osmoles" (aspartate, glutamate, taurine) which raise the tonicity of the brain cells and limit shrinkage. "
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:S--63O4dSpcJ:gucfm.georgetown.edu/welchjj/netscut/fen/hypernatremic_dehydration.html+Hypernatremic+Dehydration+shrinkage+brain&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
"Acute hypernatremia often results in significant brain shrinkage, thus causing mechanical traction of cerebral vasculature."
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic263.htm
That process doesn't sound like it would be pain free either. Torture would be more apt. No morphine in her system according to M.E.
"brain cell shrinkage causes the brain to pull away from the calvarium => tearing of bridging subdural vessels => intracranial hemorrhage"
"Acute hypernatremia often results in significant brain shrinkage"
How is significant defined? 50% ?