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People with Williams Syndrome Can Benefit from MedicAlert® Identification BraceletsUpdated 08/04/2003 The following process has been worked out by WS father, Howard Lenhoff, and WS mother, Terry Monkaba, with the MedicAlert® Foundation. We recommend that you consider it.MedicAlert® Foundation, the nation's most recognized nonprofit membership organization, has been providing emergency medical information since 1956. The MedicAlert® service connects medical professionals, family and friends with those in need of help 24-hours a day. Their services may be especially useful to families having a Williams syndrome child who may be lost, in a medical emergency, in need of help or in trouble. The process works this way. You purchase a MedicAlert® medical identification bracelet or pendant for the child to wear. Engraved on the back of the ID will be that person's confidential identification number and the primary medical condition. Gloria Lenhoff’s bracelet says: "Williams Syndrome, cognitively impaired." It also lists her special medications. Finally, also inscribed on the bracelet is a telephone number that can be called collect any time of the day. For example, the call may be made by a paramedic, a hospital, the Williams person wearing the bracelet if he or she can not reach parents or relatives by phone, or by someone helping your child in an emergency or if he or she gets lost. In a medical emergency, if you are unable to speak or clearly express yourself, then MedicAlert® will speak for you. MedicAlert® Customer Satisfaction Representatives are available 24 hours a day, and when given the identification number on the bracelet, they will relay your key medical facts to emergency responders, so you receive faster, safer treatment and avoid harmful or fatal reactions. In addition, MedicAlert® also provides family notification service in an emergency. In that way should there ever be the need, there should always be someone to help your child. Hopefully you will never need such help, but if you do, you will be grateful that you have arranged for it. The cost is quite reasonable: $35.00 for the first year and $20.00 for every subsequent year. The initial $35.00 also covers the cost of an engraved stainless steel or pendant. Designer lines are available. MedicAlert® encourages you to constantly update the information in your confidential database, and you can make the necessary changes at any time either online at www.medicalert.org or by phone. For families with very little means, MedicAlert® Foundation may also sponsor memberships provided the individual provides the required information. Funds to cover the costs for those families come from charitable tax-deductible gifts. If you wish to join MedicAlert® and secure a bracelet for members of your family and/or contribute to the Foundation, you may do so by logging on to http://www.medicalert.org, phoning 1-800-432-5378, faxing 1-209-669-2495, or writing to: MedicAlert® Foundation, 2323 Colorado Avenue, Turlock, California 95382-2018. |
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Please send mail to williamssyndrome@insightbb.com with questions or comments about this web site.For additional information about Williams syndrome, please send an e-mail to hlenhoff@uci.edu.For contact with other Williams syndrome families --In the USA: please send e-mail to info@williams-syndrome.orgOutside the USA:
please visit our
International Williams Syndrome Support Groups page for
contact information.
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