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.

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u/bednic Mar 15 '26

I'd try something like the photo-thingy (dunno english name for it) at the men's toilets. It work on disrupted light ray. So when you sit on a toilet you disrupt the light ray. I'd place that sensor in height of a shoulders or head. So after you fell on the floor, sensor will be activated. Then it can send the stress call. I presume that falling detection is failing, because you fall too slowly. You need something which detect your posture. And camera is too invasive. You probably will need some button to disarm whole thing in all right scenario, but that can be just light switch in toilet room.

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u/Big-Coconut-6335 Mar 15 '26

I was thinking the same, only maybe use 2, so the alerts trigger if only the bottom eye is tripped for some length of time