Medical alert necklaces can be lifesavers.

15 years ago

I am glad my 90 YO Mom has one since in the past 10 years she has fallen and broken her hip and pelvic. Just found out her 86 YO brother, my favorite uncle, refused to get one being the stubborn man that he is. He fell and broke his hip and laid there for a day before someone found him. He lives on the East Coast and all the relatives there take good care of him and someone had just left right before he fell. He got up from his chair and got dizzy and fell. They wanted to get him a phone by his chair but he didn't want to spend the money. The phone is in the kitchen far away. I can't even imagine what all this is going to cost.

And I hope he makes it through the surgery ok. He has a heart condition and has had a pace maker for over 30 years. Keep him in your prayers and thoughts please. He is the last surviving sibling of my Mom's. She is pretty upset and wishes she could be there but she is in Illinois.

Thanks.

Clare

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

lindyluwho
15 years ago
Just because they have one doesn't mean they will use it. My aunt (87) fell recently. It was around midnight and she just laid on the floor all night. She didn't use the call button because she didn't want to wake the neighbor who has the key!! Actually it was probably 9:30 or later the next day when they called to tell me she had activated the call button. Fortunately she wasn't hurt, just couldn't get up. Stubborn old woman.

Linda
czech_chick
15 years ago
Related Discussions
Senior Medical Alert System
Q
Comments (4)
Lifealet is the most common in our area. My DM's cousin has another "basic" company that just has a button to push, there's no voice contact. She fell a year ago and since they didn't know her condition/status they dispatched every Emergency Response Vehicle you can imagine, including a high-ladder truck & a fire-cannon truck. Help! They broke her security screen and door in because she couldn't tell them where the lock-box was hiding the key. She was fine, but oh the frustrated panic. Much to the whole family's disgust, she still has the same company. I'm trying to talk her into using CTAP, California Telephone Access Program, which is totally free and provides a button, necklace or wrist, that has up to 6 pre-programed numbers and acts as a speaker phone. So she can choose which pre-programed number to tell it to dial and talk to the person at the other end. #1 is usually 911, so they have to be thinking half straight to dial anyone else. Any where that doesn't offer CTAP, i would recommend LifeAllert. check with AARP. They may have the services in your area rated on a list. l.marie
...See More
Questions about Medical Alert Systems
Q
Comments (11)
We set my MIL up on Life Alert. I have doubts about whether she wears the tag regularly, but I can say that it appears to work. We got a call from the Life Alert dispatcher one day saying that they'd received a signal but no one was answering her phone when they called. They had called the emergency dispatch in her town and were giving us notification of that. Meanwhile I tried a couple of times to reach her and finally did. Evidently she had accidentally hit the button and then fallen asleep! I called the L.A. dispatcher back and he notified the emergency responders that all was well. They went ahead with a welfare check, replied to L.A., who then called me back with a follow up. I believe her system monitors into the garage, but not much further. My biggest complaint with L.A. is that once we requested information they hounded us night and day to make the sale.
...See More
Life Alert, Medical Alert or...
Q
Comments (25)
We got one of those for my MIL about 5 or 6 years ago. She started talking about them after my SIL had a stroke and laid on the floor for 8 hours until her DH came home from work. As a result of that stroke she has been in a nursing home and cannot move the right side of her body. Now if she had one of these maybe things would be different, but, she was only in her sixties and in good health didn't think she needed one. So, we got it for my MIL as a birthday gift (it sure makes it easy every year as to what we are going to get her besides sending her flowers) and she just loves it. She and we have piece of mind. We live a little more than hour away so it will take time for us to react in an emergency. It not only works in the house, but, we went outside in the yard and it worked as far as across the street into her neighbors drive way. So this way if she is outside near the house all she has to do is push the button if she needs help. The company is US and their operators are all US based. We did everything online with them including paying them every year. I would highly recommend them. The name of the company is Alert One http://www.alert-1.com/ Here is a link that might be useful: Alert One
...See More
Does anyone use a Life Alert-type system?
Q
Comments (21)
Kswl, maybe that’s a consolation but her immediate family didn’t see it that way. The same person was provided with a clamshell style cell phone. The hinge broke in one month and after it being shipped back to the carrier, her kid was informed there was no apparent defect and so not covered by warranty. A second of a different brand was provided and it apparently lasted 3 weeks before breaking at the hinge. It turned out she thought clamshell meant you had to grab each side and force it to open just as if one were opening a closed clamshell with a live clam inside.
...See More
joyfulguy
15 years ago
Hi Clare,

Yes, independent (especially male) old folks are like that.

I hope that your uncle's problems can be alleviated shortly and with little complications. Tell him that someone should have hit him over the head with a 2" X 4"!

Old uncle wouldn't wear one of those aid-summoning buttons until a few months before his death.

I've suggested here (and elsewhere) that folks prone to have a medical problem that would confine them to the floor should have a phone on a cord on a chair-side/bedside table, or somewhere similar, that they could pull down to where they could use it ... that one three feet up on a wall might as well be on another planet.

As for the summonsing call-buttons, probably better if one can have two or three respondents, at least one younger, if possible, who wouldn't mind being roused at 3 a.m.

But, then .. this old fart, near 80, isn't even considering having one of those call buttons on his wrist.

(He does have three phones on cords, able to be dragged to the floor, though [but only two are plugged in - he needs a splitter to make the third operational]).

No cell phone to carry around with him, either.

Old folks feel the walls closing in ... and keep trying to push them back.

I've had a licence to drive a fairly heavy straight truck, and delayed taking some of my required tests a while ago, with a view to preserving that licence, following eye repairs ... but, as some said ... "How many large trucks are you figuring on driving ... at age 79?".

Pushing those walls back - even though I'm, fortunately, able-bodied, not physically (or, I hope, mentally) restricted. (We won't go into the emotional end).

I hope that your uncle can regain his former health.

ole joyful

Medical alert necklaces can be lifesavers.

Comments (3)

lindyluwho

czech_chick

Related Discussions

joyfulguy

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US