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How Can I Build a Portable "Dead-Man's" Switch?
An anonymous reader asks: "I'm a widower caring for my very disabled child. I have family who check in on me often, but not reliably, and not every day. How can I rig up a 'dead-man's switch' that will alert family or emergency services should something happen to me, so that my child can be cared for? Her medical needs are significant enough that being alone for even an hour could be fatal for her. We do occasionally get out of the house, so a GPS type cellphone and a heart-rate monitor watch would seem to be the ticket, but how to link the two and get the desired dialing behaviour?"
If we are talking about a serious system here, you aren't going to be able to do this yourself. Just for starters, think about how complicated this would be if you decide to have a shower. You will have to deactivate the whole shooting match and then get it all back up and running again afterwards. Of course, if you slip in the shower, you're screwed. There are already solutions out there that you can sign up for. One that I have seen is a pendant you wear around your neck that has a button on it. One push, and your relatives are notified by phone. Or, fail to push the button on a regular basis and a phone call comes from the monitoring service, who can also dispatch 911, etc. Finally, at the risk of being harsh, if you truly believe you may die suddenly with no notice at any time, you seriously need to reconsider your current care arrangements. You do not strike me as qualifying to care for some with the needs you imply in your question. Please take this as honest advice, not a flame.
Talk to your doctor. You do not want a DIY solution when someone's life depends on it.
You may also want to look into a managed care facility. You may be able to get them to accept both you and your child so you could continue to care for the child.
if the dibility is such that life is at risk after one hour, why isn't the child in a care facility where they receive more than one person's care? Sometimes you think you're doing what's best for your children, but you're not.
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... if her medical needs weren't "significant enough that being alone for even an hour could be fatal for her." An hour is just too small of a window to accomplish anything useful without having so many false alarms that your family won't take the alerts seriously anymore. You really need to re-evaluate your living conditions.
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This seems to be a strange way to approach the problem. Your worry is that your child won't be able to live for long if you can't provide the proper care for her. Then, wouldn't it be better to give her a way of asking for care to be provided?
Assuming she's old enough, and not severely mentally disabled, this would seem to be the better option. After all, you could be perfectly alive and still be in a situation where you can't get to her fast enough.
I know I'm responding to a troll, but this brings up a serious point. Millions of people are walking around (and reproducing) who by all rights of nature should be dead. Are we weakening ourselves as a species? I think so...
Based on the information we're given, I think the only compassionate answer is "don't do this yourself." If a person's life depends on the reliability of this solution, trying to come up with a clever hack is just plain irresponsible. In that case, you really need to buy a tested off-the-shelf solution.