Here’s why you need a medical alert

Here’s a classic example of why you need a medical alert device.

Recently in Salt Lake City, a 99-year-old woman had an accident in her walk-in bathtub. She got stuck in an awkward position and couldn’t move.

It was 22 hours before her family members, who had tried to reach her by phone, came to the house and were able to rescue her.

This article describes her ordeal. I think it’s particularly sobering to put yourself in her place, waiting an endless length of time for help to arrive, not knowing when it will, without food to eat or any way to free yourself.

And also consider the family members, who thought their elderly relative had probably died, and went into the house thinking they would be retrieving her body.

A medical alert would have brought help quickly, whether from a monitoring company or using a no-fee medical alert. Either one would have worked fine in this situation.

And the big lesson for anyone who has a medical alert system: CARRY YOUR PENDANT. It doesn’t do you any good if it’s not with you.

Many systems offer extra pendants, or panic buttons that you can stick on the wall in trouble spots like the bathroom and kitchen.

Listen, $40 for an extra pendant may seem like a lot, but if it can keep you from spending 22 hours alone in a bathtub thinking you’re going to die there, I think you’d consider it money well spent.