About eight months ago an old friend of mine called to say that he needed some advice. It appears his 89 year-old mother (who I will call "Ruth") had fallen in the basement laundry room of their older home and broken her pelvis. She was stuck there for over 5 hours, unable to move and in a great deal of pain, before anyone found her.
Despite her age, Ruth is quite healthy and active, and after a successful surgery was admitted to a long-term care facility for rehab. So far, so good - so I asked my friend what it was he needed, and he said that the problem was not with his mother, but with his father (we'll call him "Herb").
Now, Herb has had some medical problems of his own but remains as active as possible. Needless to say, the family was not comfortable leaving Herb home alone while Ruth was recuperating. But Herb was not at all happy about staying with his daughter and their family. He wanted to be in his own home, in his own bed. Period.
"Mom lay in the basement for 5 hours before anyone found her. What can we do to make sure the same type of thing does not happen to dad?" my friend asked. I suggested a Guardian Alert 911 unit. It's one of those emergency call systems where you wear or carry a call button that communicates with a base station - just like a cordless phone. If you need help you press the call button and it dials the "911" Emergence Operator at your local Police Department. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to hook up, has no monthly monitoring fees and would give him the ability to call the outside world (via the local Police Department) should the need arise.
My friend easily hooked up the Guardian 911 unit, ran a test and taught his father how to use it. In fact, Herb liked the feeling of security so much, he wore the pendant to bed one night and accidentally set off an emergency call while he was asleep! The local Police Department responded and found Herb healthy (albeit a little embarrassed), and we have since convinced him to keep the pendant on the nightstand next to the bed.
Ruth is home and doing fine, but unfortunately Herb also ended up taking a tumble a few months later and broke his hip. As you might expect, while he was in rehab - SHE used the Guardian Alert unit and was able to stay home! It has really worked out well for both of them, as well as for their adult children.
You can get more information on the Guardian Alert 911 by clicking the link below. Once you are on the page, look for another link that says "Click here to watch our video" and you can view a very informative video on the Guardian system:
