TRIB TOTAL MEDIA SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2019 · 5
TECHNOLOGY IN SAFETY
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Allegheny county currently has 144 people registered in the Project Lifesaver program,
the majority of whom are adults with dementia or Alzheimer’s or children on the
autism spectrum.
Project Lifesaver in Munhall and a grant to
fund it. A press release about the new pro-gram
caught the eye of others in the coun-ty.
Soon, he partnered with Tom Swan,
then with the district attorney’s office, and
brought the idea to county district attorney
Steven Zappala. The district attorney not
only approved the program going county-wide,
he also agreed to fund it so that it
would be free to residents.
One of the biggest tests of the technology
came around Christmas three or four years
ago, Williams said, when a gentleman who
lived a couple of blocks from Shadyside
Hospital was reported missing by his wife.
They located him in a restaurant across
from the current Children’s Hospital on
the edge of Bloomfield and Lawrenceville,
about a mile and a half from home.
“It was cold, it was raining, and she’d
dozed off, woke up and he was gone,” Wil-liams
said. “We tore his building upside
down then started spreading out and put-ting
people the best we could in concentric
circles. I was back at the apartment run-ning
the show, and a couple of guys called
me and said, ‘You’re not going to believe
this but we have a signal (near Children’s
Hospital).’ I said, ‘Well I’m not going to
disagree with you, follow it,’ and there he
was in a restaurant, soaking wet. That’s
when I knew for sure we went with the
right product.”
Williams said that there’s no comparison
between searches he’s been a part of for
people enrolled in the program and those
who aren’t.
A few years ago at Halloween, he said, an
autistic boy went missing and the search
team included personnel from six or seven
police departments and seven or eight fire
departments, plus K-9s on the ground out
looking for the child. They found him safe
in a house blocks from the police station
about eight hours later.
“If Project Lifesaver was involved we
could have turned an eight-hour ordeal
into 15 or 20 minutes,” Williams said.
He also cited a 2015 case in which an
elderly Lower Burrell woman suffering
from dementia wandered away from home
and was later found dead inside a neigh-bor’s
truck where she had laid down. It was
a case where the technology could have
made a difference.
Kelley said the county currently has 144
people registered in the program. The ma-jority
are children on the autism spectrum
and adults with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
In order to begin the process of reg-istering
a loved one, Allegheny County
residents can call Kelly at 412-350-3138
or email Akelley@Alleghenycountyda.us.
Anyone interested in learning more about
the national organization or in bringing
Project Lifesaver to their community can
visit projectlifesaver.org.
Caregivers who don’t live in a region
where the program is offered can also pur-chase
a personal locator system through
the national website and should contact
customer service either through email at
equipment@projectlifesaver.org or by call-ing
877-580-LIFE for more information.
“It’s an amazing program,” Kelley said.
“It works, and it gives families peace of
mind knowing they have an extra level of
protection.”
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