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Why does a person need this? The answer is of course so that you can call for emergency services when you can't get to a phone. Obvious?
Today I received a phone call at around 5pm from the operator of my grandma's 平安钟. "Sir, your grandma's alarm has been set off and the home phone is engaged. We are not able to contact her. At this point, we are ready to treat this as a potential medical emergency. Are you able to go home to check on her?" Unfortunately, being at halls, I was at least 40+ minutes away from home so the operator suggested that an ambulance be called.
This has happened before where she has accidentally brushed against the button and the home phone has been left off the hook because she hadn't placed the receiver back properly. However, in previous times I had been home incidentally. I called my dad and he agreed that it was most likely an accident as well. So the question remained whether we take the risk and call the ambulance or we rush home ourselves...?
In the end my uncle rushed over to see if she was ok. Calling an ambulance was deemed not to be an option since there would be costs associated with the ambulance itself and also repairing the doors the paramedics would have to break down. To me this is sounding more and more like the story of "The boy who cried wolf".
My question remains: if you are unwilling to call the emergency services, why have the 平安钟 in the first place?
