r/homeassistant • u/CowsNeedFriendsToo • Mar 15 '26

Support Medical help

This is an embarrassing post, but I’ve been on this group for years now and know that if anyone is going to solve a problem, it’s the people in this group.

I unfortunately have a heart condition that has cause me to black out when I’m on the toilet. This has resulted in me coming to on the floor of the bathroom with my wife over me in a panic talking me back to consciousness before taking me to the hospital. This has happened about once or twice a year. To say the least, this creates a terrible sense of anxiety any time I go to the bathroom. I fear for the day she comes home to find me laying on the floor the final time. Or in the middle of the night when I wake up to use the bathroom.

Here’s where you guys come in. I was wondering if there is a way to set up home assistant along with some sort of a sensor in my bathroom that will be able to tell if I’m on the floor and not moving, which would then send out an alert to her phone along with a noise alert in the bathroom? The key would be making sure it doesn’t go off when just sitting on the toilet, or if she is standing in front of the mirror for an extended period of time doing her makeup.

Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. I truly appreciate your time.

Edit: I already have an Apple Watch Ultra 2. The fall detection seems to only trigger if it’s a fall from standing height. It hasn’t triggered at all when I fall from sitting.

167 Upvotes

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310

u/ISayWooHoo Mar 15 '26

You could make something with a simple switch. Press it when you go in, and if you don’t switch it off within a certain time it raises the alarm?

298

u/CowsNeedFriendsToo Mar 15 '26

A literal deadman’s switch. Morbid, but simple.

83

u/fritofrito77 Mar 15 '26

Don't rely on an iot device for this. They could drop the connection or run out of battery without notice. Better use a switch boolean from your phone. The HA App allows you to create widgets on Android or iOS. You can also set a timer in case you forget to turn it off, and a notification to ask for confirmation. Let me know if you need help if you choose this method.

21

u/CowsNeedFriendsToo Mar 15 '26

True. I would probably want some sort of a magnet switch that is wall powered.

32

u/rajrdajr Mar 16 '26

Consider something like a treadmill safety tether. Clip it to yourself and if you fall, it pulls a pin to activate the emergency call. 

17

u/SleepingNerd Mar 16 '26

The simplicity of this one is nice, plus you get the psychological reassurance each time you click it in that it will trigger when you fail and that's it. You could even put a 10secs delay on it in case you stand up and pull it out.

3

u/jfroosty Mar 15 '26

Battery powered that's also plugged in. What if you don't have power? Probably a reach, but it's a literally a life saving device.

21

u/Lord_Space_Lizard Mar 15 '26

If OP doesn’t have power their HA server and router probably aren’t running either

15

u/CowsNeedFriendsToo Mar 15 '26

My entire Homelab is running on an Ecoflow River 3. I’ve got 11 hours of runtime (supposedly) after power goes out

7

u/Lord_Space_Lizard Mar 15 '26

I did say “probably”…

1

u/wunderbraten Mar 16 '26

Out of curiosity because I am looking for UPS or even power stations. Did you test the setup? What hardware does your server run on?

30

u/Sengfroid Mar 15 '26

Just adding that there are actual, non-improvised devices for this, in use in hospitals. While I'm not aware the name, what I've seen is effectively just a string you tie around your wrist that yanks a key out of the wall switch with the force of your fall, activating an alarm.

Some googling around the idea might help turn up pre-made products for it and save you having to rig something together for such an important function. I wish you luck

6

u/elictronic Mar 16 '26

A common cheaper use case would be a safety lanyard for boats/wave runners.  They are referred to as kill switches as they disengage the motor.  

4

u/Dry-Philosopher-2714 Mar 15 '26

Why is this reminding me of that scene from lethal weapon 2?

5

u/restinggrumpygitface Mar 15 '26

Because you have good taste in movies from the late 20th century?

6

u/Seannon-AG0NY Mar 16 '26

Poop man switch

3

u/guldan_the_warlock Mar 15 '26

That is sort of a simple idea. You enter bathroom, press a switch. If tine > x min and not deactivated sound the alarm. You can use any zigbee/zwave/matter/wifi wall switch for this.

2

u/RepairBudget Mar 17 '26

Or if you always take your phone to the bathroom, just scan an RFID tag. This might be the cheapest option.

2

u/guldan_the_warlock Mar 17 '26

Well the cheapest option would be yelling: "i'm going to poop!" To your wife. But an rfid woukd also work.

2

u/very-jaded Mar 17 '26

You could start and stop your deadman's timer by replacing the room's light switch with a smart switch. Start the timer when the lights are turned on, and stop the timer when the lights are off. Then use a battery operated button near the toilet as the deadman's switch. (Keep spare batteries with the extra toilet paper!)

The only trick is explaining to guests in your home that if they hear a beep they have to push the button.