Subject: Re: I’ve fallen and I can’t get up
So my buddy has (as I suspected) stalled, even as he complains about almost falling over the transom to his bathroom (“I have to remember to watch out for that…”) and he fell but managed to grab the towel rack and cut his hand. He shuffles when he walks, and doesn’t dare go more than two feet away from his Roll-Ator, so of course he’s going to stumble across a transom.

Anyway, when I push him for his “I’ve fallen” solution it’s “They’re all so expensive”, and he promises to look again.

Instead, and since I have done a search or two myself, I am now bombarded with ads on Facebook for all kinds of “fall detection” and “emergency calling services” and whatnot, almost all of them requiring a hardware purchase (anywhere from $100 to $500) and a monthly fee, anywhere from $29 to $89).

Except one: Amazon emergency services. You get a couple of Alexas, almost any model will do, and subscribe to their service for $6.99 a month. As he already uses Alexa to order groceries and watch movies, he is comfortable with the technology.

I will order two more pieces of hardware - there are Alexas going from $50 to $250 (really? Yes!) and these will be the cheaper ones. But with three, we can cover anywhere in his apartment: the bathroom, the living room (next to the kitchen), and the bedroom. If he falls all he has to do is say “Alexa I need help” (or similar, I forget.) The Amazon people at the other end will notify either fire, ambulance, or police, as is appropriate, or you can have the Alexa call a contact, and you are allowed to store up to 25 of them.

This seems to overcome his objection about “they’re so expensive” (even though I’m paying, he still feels guilty about it), plus he already has an Alexa, so it’s not some newfangled thing to him.

The downside is there’s no “fall protection” should he fall and pass out, because it requires a verbal cue - but given the alternatives we’ve (I’ve) looked at this seems the best compromise.

I’m giving all this detail so anyone else looking for a solution can see what we’ve decided, and for the board to offer any additional thoughts or concerns. (He has been evacuated to his landlord’s house at the moment, as he is in the power-out zone of Kentucky due to this freak winter storm. The landlord has a generator; my buddy is alone in a 4 unit apartment building that’s being renovated except for his unit, so being alone with no power or heat would be, well, distressing to put it mildly.)