Medical Alert Systems for Elderly

In 2001, I entered into an agreement with Lifeline to provide personal emergency response service to my mother who lives in Nashville, TN. My mother (now 88 and a survivor of both triple bypass heart surgery and mastectomey) got ill on the evening of August 20. She contacted Lifeline for help by pressing the button she was provided and told the person from Lifeline (advertised on Lifeline's website as the "most experienced group of response professionals") that she was bleeding internally and needed to go to the hospital. According Lifeline own advertising materials, within seconds of receiving such a call a Lifeline Response Associate "accesses your profile and quickly assesses the situation and then contacts a neighbor, loved one or emergency services, based on your specific need". It goes on to say "the Lifeline Response Associate will follow up to ensure that help arrived" My mother told the person she needed to go to the hospital but wanted to go in a taxi not an ambulance (she was worried about the embarrassement of having an ambulance come to her house with the sirens going and lights flashing). The Lifeline Response Associate told her he was in Boston and did not have the number of taxi companies in Nashville and that she would have to find a number on her own and hung up. Lifeline never attempted to notify anyone on her contact list nor did Lifeline "follow up to ensure that help arrived". She waited an hour before a cab showed up to take her to the hospital. I contacted Jean Harris in the Customer Service dept of Lifeline who tried to tell me that they always do what the caller wants and that often people misunderstand the services that Lifeline is providing--in other words I got nothing but an apology. In fact, there is nothing mysterious or confusing about the services that Lifeline claims to provide--to get in touch with someone on the caller's list and to make sure assistance has arrived--they did neither. Lifeline refused to take responsibility for its gross negligence in the way this was handled and instead tried to blame the victim for not understanding the service that was available. This contract that I paid over $3000 in fees was a complete and utter fraud