Help I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

If you're at least 30 years old, you probably remember the old TV infomercials with the little old lady on the floor yelling "Help I've fallen and I can't get up." Well that commercial was the topic of quite a few jokes over the years. But for those that find themselves in that situation, it's nothing short of life-threatening. Imagine falling in the bathroom, breaking your hip, not being able to stand up. Imagine not being able to move from the bathroom floor, not being able to get to a phone, for hours -for days - for a week. Many seniors have found themselves in that situation and died an agonizing death after dehydrating over the period of several days.

Yes, I admit - this is some pretty severe drama to illustrate a point, but it is reality. And it's also why I think the Medical Alarm products on the market today are life-savers - in the absolute literal sense.

Medical Alarms are fairly simple to understand. You usually have to carry a little pendant around with you while you go about your day in your home.When a emergency happens, you simply push the button on the pendant. What happens next varies from model to model and service to service. Most of the time, that button press will trigger a remote device in your home to call either an emergency operator, or someone you pre-determined the system to call, like a neighbor or relative.

Some Medical Alarm systems allow you to talk to the person on the other end of the phone line - either through a walkie-talkie-like speaker in the pendant, or through a very loud speakerphone in the remote device. Other systems will just play a pre-recorded message to the person on the other end telling them to come help you.

There are pros and cons to each of these systems. The safest systems are the ones that have a monitoring service that answers your emergency. They can determine if your Medical Alarm signal is an emergency or not and immediately call not only the police, fire, or ambulance, but any other relative or neighbor you pre-registered with them. The drawback, of course is the extra $30 per month for the monitoring service.

What to Look for in a Medical Alarm:

If you are about to buy a medical alarm plan, here are some questions to ask:

- Who will answer my call, where are they located and is the call center open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?

- Are they trained to handle emergency situations?

- What happens if the emergency team gets to my door and it's locked? How will they get in? Who will you call?

- Can I pre-define my response plan? Will the operator know what to do if I can't speak? Will the operator know who to call first, second, third?

There are two main Medical Alarm competitors I like the best - Medical Alert and LifeStation. Both use the exact same hardware for their service, which is a very good system. Medical Alert I have known for quite some time and I believe they are the best run company. However, LifeStation is a real up and comer in this industry, and they are a few dollars less per month if you pay for the full year in advance.

Here's what most of the base units and the pendant look like....

The white base unit for this model has a speaker phone that allows the operator to hear what's going on inside the house. If you're in shouting distance, you can talk with tehemergency operator. If not, the medical alarm company will execute a pre-defined plan of action (call 911, etc.).