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It all began with a dear family friend who had an unwanted fall in her home. As a senior citizen living alone for many years, this incident became more than just a simple fall. It also became a very good topic for this week’s article.

First and foremost, don’t ever wait hours to call for help. If you have a fall or a slide down to the floor and you are unable to get yourself up within the first 20 minutes when you are the strongest, you can’t expect your strength to get any better the longer you remain on the floor. It’s an easy number, 911. The longer you wait the weaker, colder and worse things will get.

Second, the aging process is terrible. If you are alone, prone to weakness and worried about potential fall issues. Have an alert system available to keep with you. There are new and wonderful watches that you can wear that will call for you if it detects a fall! Dispatch has been called by an apple watch a few times and it’s super cool. Or wear that alert around your neck as a necklace so that you can activate it if you don’t have your phone on you.

Third, have a way for help to get into your house and make sure everyone knows how. This is not limited to only your family and friends. Families know how to break in, but what about the police or ambulance crews? If your local dispatch knows, then all EMS systems (police, ambulance, fire) know. They all get the same dispatch with the same information

In the story that I’m using for this week’s article, our dear friend was able to get to her cell phone, because she did not have her emergency alert button on her. Then after too many hours of not wanting to call 911 for assistance, she called a neighbor who called 911 for her. The number to get into the garage was shared and it worked perfect. The Ambulance crew were able to enter the garage. Then they were told that the key to get into the house was located on top of a shelf, located in the specific location. Nope. So, after a few more minutes attempting to locate the lost key, possibly in a different location on a different shelf in addition to lost communication with our fallen friend, forced entry was the only solution.

Please don’t let this happen to you. This week I want to encourage you to make a plan that allows emergency access into your home, to help you. This week’s story, ended well with nothing more than a long over due lift assist and a very worried neighborhood and family. Our dear friend initiated a neighborhood and friend movement of setting up appropriate key boxes and notification to our local dispatch of where these key boxes are located and what the code is to get into the key box.

Here’s the worst kind of information we can receive if we’ve been called by an alert system button or a cell phone. “The key to the house can be found under a rock, in the front garden, next to the Angel statue on the northeast corner of the house.” It’s snowy, the front garden is full of rocks, the angel is ancient and it’s dark! Crews have spent too many minutes overturning rocks in gardens trying to find that key to help you. Not a good plan.

Lesson for this week. Make it easy for all emergency agencies by making sure your house is easy to find. This means sharp, reflective, easy to locate house numbers on the front of your house.

Second, already have your local dispatch tuned in to where a secure and locked key box is located and what the key box code is to get into that box. This key box should be easy to find, within the vicinity of the door.

Remember, when emergencies happen it’s important that EMS can get to you as quickly as possible. Let’s save the breaking down of doors for the movie stars in action.

Deborah Holmes is an EMT with EPH, a licensed fiduciary and certified mortgage broker with Primerica Financial Services, NMLS #2257494. Local office, Vert CoWorking , 1230 Big Thompson Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517, by appointment only, 970-690-1300.

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