As Ruth Joyce lay paralyzed by pain after falling down just three backyard steps, she watched her knee — shattered into pieces the size of Corn Flakes — swell up like a watermelon.

Her leg was broken in two places, making it impossible for Joyce, who lives alone, to drag herself to a phone. She knew it would be hours until either of her Scarborough neighbors was home from work. So the former kindergarten and music teacher did what she’s always done best — sing. She thought a rhythmic chorus of “help me” would attract attention faster.A painter, working on a nearby house, heard her siren song.

By the time Joyce, now 73, was discharged from hospital, her kids had equipped her with a medical alert bracelet, which she wore religiously until just a few days ago. That’s when she upgraded to a pendant with the power to sense if she’s falling — and call for help if she’s not back up on her feet within 30 seconds.

Developers of the new Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert are calling it a much-needed technological breakthrough, especially for the growing number of seniors determined to stay in their homes as long as possible. They believe the novel pendant could help save seniors from the health risks and huge death toll associated with falls, which affect more people over the age of 65 than strokes and heart attacks combined.

For her part, Joyce, who has lived in her spacious Scarborough bungalow since the death of her husband over a decade ago, is just excited to wear “a piece of jewellery that doesn’t shout ‘help button.’ “There’s a good likelihood that I will fall again. This gives me, and my family, some peace of mind.”

The new Lifeline, which has just gone on sale in Canada after three years of research and more than 25,000 hours monitoring the movement of seniors, contains accelerometers and pressure sensors that can detect when the wearer is taking a tumble. (Rapid hand movements make it impossible to create a wristband version, developers say, so the best option for men may be tucking it in their shirts.)

Once a fall has been detected, the senior has 30 seconds to either get up on his or her own or push the help button before the device automatically connects with a Lifeline response centre and a voice comes over a receiver in the seniors’ home, asking if help is needed.

The device is aimed at easing both the physical and the emotional damage from falls, one of the biggest health risks for seniors. About 1.4 million people over the age of 65 fall each year in Canada and 50 per cent of them will be unable to get up on their own.

“Falls are an epidemic for seniors. They can cause very significant health issues, but there’s also emotional distress,” says Erik Sande, general manager of Philips Home Monitoring.

“People can become so fearful of falling again that they don’t go out any more. They become much more isolated and that just compounds their health problems because they’re not getting exercise and they become depressed because they’re not seeing their friends and family.”

The risk of “lie time” can be horrendous, say health experts, and lead to complications such as pressure sores, dehydration, hypothermia, pneumonia and muscle breakdown that can flood the body with toxins. Every hour spent on the floor increases the risk of dying.

The new device, which rents for $55.50 a month, is touted to have a 95 per cent accuracy rate at detecting falls and a low rate of false alarms. For more information see www.Lifeline.ca 

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