OT: Medical Services Question
 

Some of you may remember my mother passed away earlier this year. My father has not taken this well and is not healthy at all. He is a heavy smoker and by doing such has managed to do much harm to his vascular arteries. This condition causes dizzy spells, shortness of breath and we all understand that one-day heart failure or stroke will most likely take him as well. This weekend we where having a barbeque when he suddenly passed out and collapsed. He almost immediately regained consensuses, we helped him on his feet and within moments he was back to normal. His condition is obviously getting worse but he is a very proud man, stubborn one might say, and I do believe that he is just waiting for time to take him as it did with my mother. All this is going on and he still runs a mini farm with cattle on ten acres in the country all by himself.

Question: Does anyone know of a medical pager or device that will allow him to page emergency medical services at the push of a button? If something happened and he fell down the stairs or broke a leg, it could be days before someone from the family called or dropped in to check up on him. I am very concerned. Any suggestions on what technology is available would be greatly appreciated.

Trevor

I believe that most of the major residential alarm system companies have remote "panic" buttons available with their systems. (Brinks, Wells Fargo, ADT...)

There is also a company who's TV ads go something like "I've fallen and I can't get up!" They specialize in nothing but remote medical emergency buttons. I just cannot recall their name offhand.

Here's a few quick links I found
 

Senior Safety

American Medical Alarms

Lifeline

:cool:

Trevor, I'm sorry to hear that your father is having problems. Before he passes out is he coughing hard? A gentleman I worked with had a problem of passing out due to coughing. His coughing was caused by years of heavy smoking too. He didn't pass out because of lack of oxygen as his doctor first thought, but because blood vessel restrictions in his neck during the coughing fit. They did something medically to stop the problem as well as stopping smoking. It maybe something that his doctor can diagnos. I wish you the best of luck.

Jeff

Trevor~I wish your dad the best!:)

Your Dad really needs to see a doctor., a cardiologist.
As soon as possible. Even if he doesn't want to go, find a way to make him go. I know he's still grieving for your Mom and he may feel lost or useless with her. You and the rest of the family need to get it across to him that you all need him and would be lost without him. You know what I mean?
You also need to get him off cigarettes, and off caffine (coffee, tea, soda, cocoa, etc.). Drinking (liquor) doesn't help either.
Please get him looked at?

I have a heart condition called Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib). Some people call it palpitations, heart flutter, etc. What it is, is an irregular heart beat caused by one side of the heart not getting a nerve signal to beat. This creates a loss of blood flow to the brain causing dizzyness and some times fainting.
There's no cure for this, except a pace maker when it becomes totally uncontrolable. I also have high blood pressure and my medication also helps to take care of the A-Fib.
Just so you know, I'm not an old man. I'm only 47. I've had this heart trouble since I was 22 and had high blood pressure almost all my life.
All of my problems are hereditary. My Dad had several heart attacks, two strokes, hypertension, drug allergies and finally died of emphysema from smoking.

Thank you everyone. This board is simply the best. Snail-boaters will never understand!

My dad has been seeing a cardiologist for about 3 years now. About three years ago they did exploratory surgery to see what the problem was and discovered that the one of the two main arteries that supplies blood to the brain was almost totally plugged up from smoking his whole life. He is 72 and has chained smoked the entire time and has absolutely no intention of stopping. Take heed all you smokers out there, here is your future.

When mom got sick last year he stopped going in and when we forced him to go to his yearly. I do not believe he was totally honest with the doctor because nothing came of it. My brother is a fire chief, my sister-in-law a nurse and even these two have had no luck in convincing him. I believe he just is waiting his time out. Really sucks. I tried to reach him on and off all yesterday afternoon, and at 7:30 when I still could not reach him I was about to jump in the car and drive the 30 minutes over to the farm. I tried once more and he picked up the phone. He was working outside all day and was just getting in. This is starting to really stress me out. I just got through with my mom and now this is starting up all over again.

Anyway, I’m having dinner with him and my sister on Wednesday and it is time for an honest chat.

Thanks again.

Trevor