Elaine has just checked off one of those not-to-do-but-once things, and she wants to tell her story because she's sure it will warn other people who live alone to be extra careful.

Especially women, she says.

But as she says that, she realizes that her concerns apply to men as well — particularly those up in their years.

"In late January I lost my balance and fell in my home," she says.

And then she did what came naturally.

"I tried to get up, but I couldn't. I used my panic button around my neck, and the phone rang, but I couldn't answer it. Then the answering machine came on, and somebody asked if I needed assistance."

Yes, she needed assistance. She needed it desperately. But the person on the phone apparently couldn't hear her.

And then somebody — well, it was more than one somebody but she doesn't know how many came to her front door, and she called out to try to get their attention.

"But they couldn't hear me," she says, "so they went to the side door, and I still couldn't get their attention."

That's when a neighbor saw paramedics and a policeman there.

"And she came over to see why and asked what they were doing, but the paramedics and the policemen were leaving," the neighbor told her later, "and she told them, 'You're not leaving! She's in there. She needs help. The panic system wouldn't have called if she didn't need help.' "

The "panic system" she was referring to was Lifeline Services, says Mary Kelly, manager of Caregiver and Lifeline Services at Rowan Medical Facility at 126 Statesville Blvd.

"It's a personal help button. People wear them around their necks or on their wrists."

If a person needs help, he can push the button and help responds quickly.

"And people can have Lifeline for a monthly monitoring fee of $30 or about a dollar a day," Mary says, "so it's a godsend and comfort to people who live alone."

Another next door neighbor had a key to Elaine's door but she couldn't find it, so the neighbor finally convinced the paramedics that they had to get in, and they did. They kicked the door in.

"And," Elaine says, "they picked me up, put me an ambulance and took me to the hospital. I had broken my hip."

She had fallen into the corner of a door, cut her elbow almost to the bone, then as she tried to regain her balance she fell into another door, hitting her face and head, and then she fell to the floor and broke her hip.

And that, she says, was the real fall. It also damaged nerves in her arm and hand.

Later, when her daughter from out of state was here, she ate breakfast at College Barbecue and noticed a couple of policemen.

"And she couldn't help herself," her mother says. "She had to talk to them about what happened. She had to know why the policemen didn't immediately kick the door in."

They couldn't, the policemen explained.

"They would not have gone in unless they could see or hear somebody because they cannot force entry, so they were trying to find a key."

Her daughter asked if not being allowed to force entry was a Salisbury or Rowan or North Carolina or national regulation, but the policemen couldn't tell her.

It depends on what the situation is, says Karen Barbee, shift supervisor for the Salisbury Police Department.

"If we get a call of that nature," she says, "we take it very seriously. We make every effort possible to locate the person, so if we're very sure they're inside, we usually call the fire department and they come and assist us.

They have tools, and they will come in and force entry for the police department, and we get a medical person there as well.

"We do everything we can possibly do, and we have a system to call very elderly people to check on them. It's called the "Are You OK? program."

"But if it had not been for the neighbor, they said they would have left because they didn't have permission."

In effect, the neighbor's concern provided that permission.

"But," Elaine says, "don't fall in the tub. Don't fall anywhere when you can't be seen or heard. People need to know that."

To be on the safe side, Elaine's daughter called her security provider and advised them to put on her mother's record that paramedics and police are to make entry if she ever has to call for assistance again.

She calls the button she wears around her neck that enables her to call someone her security button.

"I live by myself," Elaine says. "Let's face it. That's why you wear this thing. It's for security."

After her fall, Elaine was in the hospital about a week, then went to the Lutheran Home ("and they are fantastic, and I'd put their therapists and complete staff up against anybody's") and finally she got home.

"Thank God," she says, "that I'm able to live alone again, but therapists are still coming to my home."

That broken hip makes her want everybody who's got some age behind them to have a panic button so help will be quick in case of a fall.

Contact Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisburypost.com.