Attention Senior Citizens…

No opportunity for fire to come and open things up? They (we) love that sort of thing.

As the geezer in the home, I generally leave the door unlocked. Stop by some time.

Fire was on the way when we finally got in.She was agonal when I got to her.Did all the usual stuff, but she died in the ER.Frustrating, to say the least.

Good points AD, sorry you lost that one. I use the flasher, and neighbors have the garage code. That is another option.

Very well put. I don’t know which is worse, when you can’t get in or when you can’t even find the place – I really wish people wouldn’t live in stupid places, and even worse insist on using house names rather than numbers (have a name <>and<> a number if you must!)One solution that strikes me – paint the house number in UV paint on the sides of the house? Emergency services could be provided with UV lamps so that they can spot the correct house from a fair distance in the dark. Not sure how feasible that would be though, probably just a pipe dream.

you are making the assumption that ALL of your neighbors arent scumbags.I live in a not so lovely apt complex because the rents cheap and I honestly do not know anyone I would like to hold an emergency deadbolt key-and I keep it locked 24/7.Once when new to my complex I left the door unlocked while I went about 100 yds to laundry room and returned to notice in a few hrs my digital camera and cell phone were gone-one of the ones you want me to trust had been bold enough to walk in and snatch them.On a positive note or not so positive -its not uncommon to see the paramedics in my complex and they always roll out with a firetruck (which is odd as we have a private contractor EMS for the city). I live maybe 4 blocks from a fire station so they might be FD paramedics. There is a high level of disturbance calls with bodily injury in my plex. Oddly I dont feel the need to militarize my pad with a personal arsenal-hell it would make be a bigger theft target if it got out I was packing. Maybe a pump shotgun with alternating buckshot and slug loads….

Unfortunately, I have had the pleasure of a case like this, fortunately the outcome was better. A lady had fallen and when she came to, she couldn’t get up off the floor (fractured hip). She lived alone and had no one close with a key. Myself and a fellow officer finally broke the lock on the back sliding glass door to get in.

Been reading you for a while now AD, and love your blog. This post reminded me of my grandmother, who’s been gone 4 yrs this July. She fell, and couldnt get up (heart attack and the fall caused a fractured hip). She had nothing to contact anyone with and laid there about 12hrs before my uncle came home and found her. She lived for almost 3 weeks, but the amount of damage made it impossible. I’m glad we have people like you! People like you made it so we all got a chance to see her and say goodbye. Thank you.

Much appreciated that you put those hints out there. Tough loss dude. Shit happens.

I’m sorry to hear that you were in that position.Nick – many types of paint will absorb UV dye like < HREF="http://aerospace.chemetall.com/index.jsp?content=datasheet.jsp?seg=abc&newsDat=products_abc&id=219" REL="nofollow">this<>, and appear as a thin layer of a yellow colour over whatever it was applied to. UV light will cause them to fluoresce <>brilliantly.<> I don’t know where you’d get a single can of it, but it would contain enough dye to do every house on the block.Jim

The key under the doormat always works on TV.

Sorry to hear about this one AD, its a no win situation. I have a neighbor who bolts themselves in every night- due to the health issues they have I wondered what we’d do if we had to break in- Thank God when the crisis finally did happen yesterday it was daylight and everyone was conscious- and able to call EMS and let them in@

Our jurisdiction uses Knox Box systems. Restricted access apartment/condo structures and most commercial structures have them. Some private homes do, too.http://www.knoxbox.com/store/

It’s terrible when things like this happen … by keeping secure, they’re putting themselves at risk. Several years ago, when I was in the middle of a divorce, I was planning a visit to my soon-to-be-ex mother-in-law (who lived 1-1/2 hours away from me). I called several times before that day and got no answer. So I went over to her house and was shocked to find her laying on the floor, unable to get up (she had DJD of the hip) and was unable to get to the phone. She’d tripped over the dog. (Not to mention, she was a daily heavy alcohol consumer which didn’t help matters.) Thankfully, the front door was unlocked so I could get in. She was confused, wasn’t sure how long she’d been down, but after several minutes, she did recognize me. So I called 911 to get an ambulance crew there for assistance. She only wanted me to get her up and not call for help, but I knew I wasn’t qualified or trained to lift her without hurting her or even myself. If she had a serious injury, I didn’t want to make it worse by moving her. The local EMS team arrived and they got her on her feet. However, being the stubborn woman that she was … she refused to go to the hospital to get checked. All she wanted was to get on her feet and be left alone. I tried to talk her into being transported but she refused. Luckily, some of her kind neighbors came by to offer assistance and stayed with her, brought over supper for her, (as I had responsibilities at my own home.) She refused to call any of her children (who all lived out of state) and then she asked me not to call them either – she didn’t want them to know about this, but I decided they needed to know because this was a serious safety issue. I could see the potential of things getting worse. Once I got to my home and had access to my phone list, I called her two daughters (who were the primary contacts) out of the five kids, and let them know what had happened to their mother. Her daughters both arrived the next day, and took charge. She ended up having a total hip replacement and going through rehab. I know she wasn’t happy with me calling her daughters, but I felt I had no choice. One thing I could recommend for older folks – on their refrigerators perhaps, have a list of family/friends phone numbers in the case that they can’t tell EMS who to contact, or if they can’t be admitted to their local hospital and end up at a facility where they have no prior records. Also, a current list of medications for the EMS crew or at least the name of their pharmacy would be helpful. So many times I type ER notes where the patients have absolutely not a clue what their meds are. Speaking of identifying house numbers … I saw something really neat that caught my eye in my town. Someone had the numbers on the house, but they were lights – done in red. They really stood out nicely and were easy to read from the street. These were LED house lights. Here’s one website of many for the LED house lights if anyone wants to get a look at them. http://www.ledress.com/I also saw links for solar house lights as well, which would be helpful when there’s a power outage – something for everyone I guess!

I recently ruptured my achilles tendon…my family could not understand why I wanted the front door left unlocked while they were gone during the day…explained to them if I fell, reinjured myself, whatever, EMS could not get in the house and I had enough gun power that if any idiot tried to rob, murder, whatever I would be well protected.

I work for Hospice and we have the same problem. Cant get in to help because the place is locked up like Fort Knox. I feel sorry that the old people are so afraid. They need bigger guns…mom

Around here it’s not uncommon for elderly folk to leave their keys with the ambulance service.We have a save full of keys – all with number tags, no names or addresses attached. In case of an emergency, dispatch just tells us to take key #x along and everything is fine.

What a helpless feeling, AD. Sorry you had to go through that.

They have combination locks for doors now but I think they all run on batteries. And on a hot summer day, batteries only last 3 weeks. (My experience with garden hose timers.)

Over here in UK social services will (in some areas) fit the keyboxes. I have one (I have chronic severe brittle asthma) and social services keep a note of the code so that if it’s needed by the emergency services it’s easily got. Having said that, whenever I call an ambulance I always *try* to get to the door to open it before the paramedics arrive, and leave the outside light on so that they can easily see which house I’m at. Oh yeah, and the community care alarm people (which I also have) know that I have the key box and that social services have the code. The problem is that so many folk fall through the gaps in the system and don’t get the help and support with these simple life-saving things. I’m lucky that my hospital team are on the ball with all aspects of care.

I ran across this article while searching for something totally unrelated, and it reminded me of your post — Do you have any opinion one way or the other?http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/article_2204.shtml

Sorry — the url was cut short –trying again. http://www.defrance.org/artman/ publish/article_2204.shtml

Thanks for sending that, Bianca.If anyone should have been sued, I think it should have been the 911 dispatcher who failed to pass along all the information. Had I been on that call, and <>known<> that the patient was in severe distress and had said she was going to try unlocking her door, I’d likely have broken in.I do feel the paramedic was negligent in regard to the fact that he left the scene without at least trying to gain entry. In those situations, we usually call our dispatch for more information. Had he done so, it’s likely he’d have surmised that she was unable to unlock her door, and broken in.In my case, I could <>see<> the lady lying on the floor teen feet away, but there was no breaking through that door with the tools available. By the time we got in, it was too late.

Great tip AD!

That’s something you never tend to think about. I guess it’s because you never expect to need anyone to get into your house like that.When I had to call an ambulance after an infection in my spinal cord I couldn’t get to the door to unlock it because I couldn’t move. I was living in an apt. at the time and passed out before the ambulance actually got there. I’m still not sure how they got into my apt. I’m guessing a neighbour buzzed them in, but they managed to get my door unlocked too (unless I happened to forget to lock it, but that never happened).If I had more than the regular apartment type locks it would have been much harder though. Ever since then I always make sure there’s a way to get in if needed. I hope it never is needed, but I am a quadriplegic and things can happen. I’d rather be prepared just in case.