Octogenarian Mary V. lives alone in her home in Marble, North Carolina. Her children, though they live close by, can’t be there for her all the time and were worried about something happening to her when they were not around. So, the day after Christmas 2014, her son, Mike, decided to buy his mom a Mobile Guardian medical alert device from Medical Guardian.
Knowing that his mom was protected by Medical Guardian, Mike took his family for a vacation out of state in early February 2015. On the morning of February 11th, he received a phone call from his mom telling him that she had had a heart attack but wasn’t planning on doing much about it. He urged her to use her button to call for help if she needed it.
At 3:11pm on February 11th, Mary did, in fact, use her button to call Medical Guardian’s Monitoring Center. She told the Emergency Operator that she had experienced a heart attack the day prior and was worried about her health, she wanted to have her vitals checked. The Emergency Operator was able to arrange for local medics to drive out to Mary’s house to check in on her. Because her son was out of town, EMTs were provided with Mary’s personal lockbox code for the front door and were also told that her medical information was listed on the front of the refrigerator in her kitchen.
After arranging for the medics to check in on Mary, the Emergency Operator called Mike to let him know what was happening. He was so grateful for the phone call–located in another state, was worried about his mother and relieved that she had listened to his advice from that morning and used her button.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry!
Quick Facts About Heart Attacks
This data was collected by the Centers for Disease Control:
- About 600,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
- Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2009 were in men.
- Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing nearly 380,000 people annually
- Every year about 720,000 Americans have a heart attack. Of these, 515,000 are a first heart attack and 205,000 happen in people who have already had a heart attack.
- Coronary heart disease alone costs the United States $108.9 billion each year. This total includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity.
