Get a Medical Alert System for Your Elderly Loved Ones Living on Their Own

The idea of a medical alert is not news, but technology makes it must simpler.

Many elderly and disabled people live alone, either through choice or because they must. Some enjoy having their independence. Others have nobody to stay with them to take care of them.

Many elderly people are relatively healthy now, and able to live alone and get around. Many disabled are also able to manage their own everyday lives.

However, they are at risk of sudden medical emergencies. Strokes and heart attacks are the obvious problems that can strike people without warning, dropping them in their tracks before they are able to go to a telephone and call 911 for an ambulance.

medical alert

A Medical Alert Uses Modern Technology

My grandfather lived alone and wouldn't have had it any other way. That was thirty years ago, however, and no medical alert devices existed that I know of.

Anyway, he didn't have any. So when he suffered a stroke in the middle of the night he had to stay on the bathroom floor until somebody found him in the morning, and called an ambulance to take him to the hospital, where he eventually passed away. But I feel bad thinking about Grandpa, after his long and productive life and everything he did for so many people, having to spend those hours on the floor, where he probably suffered from the cold (it was January), and was helpless with nobody around to take care of him.

My mother lived alone for many years, and I thought of getting her a medical alert of some kind, but it was my sister who finally got that done in March of this year.

She never needed it, though, because I was staying here with her, so when she did start having problems I was able to call 911 right away for an ambulance. She did suffer, but thankfully never had to spend a long time on the floor.

Her medical alert system consisted of a main unit that sat in the kitchen, close to where she often spent her mornings, and around the corner from the small bathroom between her bedroom and bathroom. So it was in a convenient location.

It had a large button she could easily push in if she needed help. It would send a signal so that a company operator would respond quickly to ask her if she needed help. If she'd had such a problem while alone, she could tell it to the operator or, if she didn't respond, they would have called 911.

They Must Wear the Medical Alert Device Constantly

We installed a little lockbox outside the front door, with the front door key in it, so that if the EMTs arrived, they could get into the front door (the alert company had the combination and could give it to the EMTs).

The system was never tested, because I was always present when she fell, but it was set up well. Every so often, the company tested it. An alarm would sound, and a voice would come through the main unit asking my mother to press the button, for a test. Then the operator would come on and ask if everything was all right.

My mother also had a button on a neck strap, which many times she didn't wear all the time in the house as she was supposed to. So my sister ordered a bracelet type, hoping my mother would keep that on. Unfortunately, by the time that arrived she was already in the hospital for the final time.

If she'd fallen while I happened to be out of the house, the medical alert could have been a lifesaver for my mother, or at least saved her from the long uncomfortable night her father spent thirty years ago.