Medical ID Bracelets Speak for You When You Can't

A few months back I finally convinced my mother to wear a medical ID bracelet. It wasn’t so much because she had any medical conditions that we needed to let others know about in the case of an emergency, but more because she was living alone in a new neighborhood.

After over 25 years in the same neighborhood Mom decided the old house was too big and too old. She wanted to move into something new – which meant moving to a new neighborhood. The unfortunate part is, although my mother is very friendly, she does not know a sole where she now lives, and the neighborhood is much younger and busier then she is. Unlike the old neighborhood, when she takes the dog for a walk there aren’t a half dozen old friends to talk to. This is what concerned me.

What if on one of her long walks something happened? What if Mom couldn’t respond to who to contact in the event she was injured or confused? It was this possible experience that made me think it was time for her, at the age of 79, to get a medical ID bracelet.

The ID bracelet we chose is a simple stainless steel model – nothing fancy – that is the way my mother prefers it. Functional, simple but attractive. On the front of the ID bracelet we engraved her name, and on the back, in case of an emergency (“ICE”) - 3 cell phone numbers - mine, my sister’s and my brother’s.

Medical ID Bracelets really work…

An interesting thing happened a couple of weeks back. After many years, Mom had a new doctor. She had gone to her first appointment by herself. Being busy and trying to get in all of her patients that day, the new Doctor began to ask Mom a series of questions. Not being used to this, unfortunately, some of the questions got Mom a little rattled and confused. When the Doctor asked about who she should list as the next of kin on her chart and how to contact them, Mom could not recall all of our phone numbers. Fortunately though, she remembered that we had engraved our cell numbers on the back of her medical ID bracelet which she showed to the Doctor. The Doctor then called me to confirm some of the things Mom had told her during that appointment. At first I was taken aback by what had happened, but then realized that this is exactly why we got mom the medical ID bracelet - to help speak for her when she could not respond herself.