Man builds device to help alert caregivers and the doctor if an elderly falls

“It was not the first time my grandmother fell in her home in the United States. But that time, we were all there as we witnessed the fall where she hit her head. She immediately got up and told everyone she was okay. No one paid much attention until in the days that followed when she complained of dizziness. When we brought her to the hospital, the doctors found a blood clot in the brain. That same day she went into a coma and later died. I don’t want this to happen to my other and only remaining grandmother, 92-year-old Alegria San Juan, who happily lives alone in Tagaytay City”, Angelo recalled.

This led him to create SimpleWave, an oval-shaped device that is attached anywhere near the user’s chest. It alerts not only family members but more importantly, the attending doctor who could immediately send an ambulance and if needed, perform a life-saving procedure, in case the user has just suffered a fall, even telling the severity of the impact.

“It functions like those health apps in your smartphones that track steps and movement. But Simple Wave is a lot more sensitive as it detects a fall as a result of an ailment (like fainting due to diabetes or stroke) or due to slips and trips. It could measure the intensity of the fall and automatically send all this information via text and over the Internet to predetermined contacts. The elderly wearer could also talk to the person on the other end since the Simple Wave also incorporates a GSM chipset with micro-SIM, speaker and microphone,” he explained.

This differs from traditional medical alert systems since there’s not a button that needs to be pressed for the alert to go off. After all, once a fall has occurred, the wearer may not be able to manually call for help. So the SimpleWave automatically detects the fall.

Angelo co-founded his company, Simple Wearables, to bring this solution into the market.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2YgXEUg
https://bit.ly/2Msm8D6

More info: https://www.simplewearables.com/
https://vimeo.com/129638577