Looking for hearing aids with fall detection capability that can connect with Bluetooth to allow for an automatic alert to be sent to a selected contact. This is technically possible now but everything I’ve seen requires the faller to be alert enough to connect through siri, Alexa or echo. Bums me out to have to pay a monthly fee for two of us to use medical alert service when I just want my daughter to know one of us fell again. We are 80 and 70. Between us we have fallen 3 times since Christmas. Twice needing er visits and staples. We both wear hearing aids and use iPhones. Anyone else tried this?
I like the idea of “fall detection/alert” in aids, but if you can’t afford a new pair, there are other medical alert services here4 if it comes to that.
When I fell it sounded an alert and asked if I fell. If you are OK you can say so and it does nothing. If after a minute of inactivity you don’t respond it will call emergency services. After that it will call your emergency contact if you have one programmed.
It doesn’t take long to recharge so it doesn’t need to be off the wrist long.
Thank you for the information. Being I am living “independently” on the front side of a downhill slope it is good for me to know these things. I once had to rely on an Alexa device to get help when I had
a sublaxation of the left hip at 0130 hours Again, thanks, clif
I’d second the Evolv Ai choice on this. We fit a few - ergonomically and acoustically they aren’t quite my first choice, but people who have adopted them as a first aid (perhaps especially with tinnitus and decent mental plasticity) seem to get on really well.
In fact I had a 50yo business owner in this morning with the full " it’s changed my life" spiel - which is great news as his mental health had been suffering a shade prior to his fitting.
I have the starkey’s and they allow you to send alerts to multiple people should you fall and it works fine and quickly. that being said i turned mine off because it would send an alert just because i looked down. I guess i could have called starkey tech support or talked to the audi but just never got around to it.
Don’t know how both the Starkey Evolv’s and an Apple Watch would work together, but both might be better than either one alone. The ’s might be good because they’re in what matters most - your head. But then you might not always be wearing them and have a fall. The Apple Watch, you might be more likely to always be wearing the watch. I wear mine 24x7 except when charging or showering. But you’re wearing it on your wrist, not your head!
The thing about either watch or HA’s is you have to be near your iPhone or, for the watch, on the same Wi-Fi network as your phone. So, if you really wanted the ability to call for help in ~any circumstance, getting the GPS+Cellular version of an Apple Watch should literally let you call for help anywhere there is cell service, even if somehow you weren’t connected to your iPhone.
Since we are Spectrum Internet customers, I can get a relatively good deal on Spectrum Mobile service. Spectrum is an MNVO operator and uses Verizon to supply its cell service but counts you using Spectrum Internet Wi-Fi calling when at home. It costs me $14 per gigabyte of data and $10 to add the watch to my cellular plan, so because I’m mostly calling and using the Internet from home, my monthly bill is $24 per month (no added fees). Unlimited calling and texting in the U.S., too. Roaming in Canada and Mexico at reasonable rates - haven’t checked elsewhere in world.
If you’re well-off, I recommend getting an Apple Watch Ultra ($800). If you manage the battery as if it were an EV (stay between 20% and 80% SOC), you’ll get years of use out of it. It’s incredibly durable and although it doesn’t yet connect directly to HA’s, the call quality using its microphones and speakers is excellent (it currently uses classic , although it has BT 5.3 hardware, and thus can connect directly to Phonak HA’s like the Lumity or Paradise but I never managed to set up calling to my HA’s when trialing the Lumitys).
One of the reasons I got the Apple Watch in a cellular version is that I had what I considered a life-threatening syncope event (12/13/21) when I was out walking alone in the middle of the night. I was so struggling for breath and consciousness that my focus, unfortunately, wasn’t on pulling my phone out from under a heavy winter coat. I gradually lowered myself and collapsed to the pavement, lying flat on my back, panting like crazy, barely conscious for a few minutes. So, I wouldn’t have hit with a thud that would have automatically sent an alert, but a long, held press on my watch side button would have dialed 911 as described by previous posters and sent my GPS location, as well as notifying my emergency contacts of the same. It would have been a lot easier to activate my watch than pull out my phone. The Ultra also has an 86 siren that, once activated, can send frequent periodic blasts to alert responders to your location - it can run for hours before it depletes the watch battery. The watch will continue to send your GPS location to your emergency contacts, so if EMS whisks you away somewhere, your emergency contacts might get an idea of where you’ve been taken (I, fortunately, have not had to put this feature to a test yet so I don’t know how well it really works and whether EMS is likely to be removing all of your personal belongings, etc., as they go). Again, a cellular Apple Watch can do this by itself, but your HA’s might always need to be near your iPhone.
Tennessee
Wales, UK
