[D.Bolen]

My spouse wears the medical alert by "Lively" around the neck, it's a rectangular silver-colored device w/black cord & magnetic closure, fairly modern-looking. We bought 2 units to avoid 3 hours of "down time" when recharging is necessary (considering that via Murphy's Law, the 3 hours not wearing it would be when a crisis would occur). Not a candidate for the Apple watch with fall detection as your cellphone needs to also be IOS/Apple (not Android/Samsung etc.) for the watch's fall detection to operate. At the time I inquired, I was told Samsung was in the process of developing an Android watch with fall-detection but I'm not aware of the status of that technology.

The folks monitoring the Lively system have come online via the unit's speaker several times due to falls that were detected but not requiring help; first a recording stating that a fall was detected is heard on the unit's speaker, after which a live person inquires whether you are ok or need help. If you respond that you're ok, the call is concluded. If they get no reply, their next step is to either phone a contact number (if you have provided one at set-up) or to call 911 to have someone sent to the home. When I was away from the house, I had set up the system to phone me after a fall detection to help ascertain my spouse's condition, which they successfully did. Twice, we did need to initiate the device to request a call for paramedics, who arrived very promptly.

The system (in our area) uses Verizon, and when I balked about spotty service with cellphones using Verizon, the Lively tech offered that these devices generally don't have connection issues due to their being simple, without the various apps on cellphones.

I will add that one huge benefit was that during the times we needed to use the service, the Lively tech who connected us to the local 911 got through to them in a way that seemed more direct, without a long "hold" time and avoiding some of the general 911 operator triage questions I've been asked as just a random individual calling 911 by phone.

Though I'm not the one regularly wearing the device, whenever I engage in moderately strenuous exercise when no one else is nearby, I consider it prudent to do so with of these units around my own neck.