ALARM TO STOP PARENTS’ WORRY
ADRIAN PERRY, 60, a former electrical engineer, lives in Kent with his wife Sue, 62. The couple have three children. Adrian developed this device to monitor his son, Tom, 23, for night-time seizures. £1,100, pulseguard.org
TOM’S form of epilepsy causes night-time seizures that could be fatal if they cause him to choke or injure himself.
To alert us to the seizures, under Tom’s mattress we put a special alarm that detected movement during a seizure and a monitor to detect any noises. We also had a CCTV camera installed above his bed to review the previous night’s sleep.
During playback one morning in 2012, we discovered we’d missed quite a prolonged seizure — Tom’s face had been buried in his pillow so no noise was picked up and the movement hadn’t triggered the alarm. My wife and I realised we desperately needed something that could keep better track of Tom at night.
I remembered one of his consultants saying that during a seizure, the heart rate increases dramatically. So I decided we needed a monitor that could detect Tom’s heart rate, setting off an alarm if it rose or fell. This eventually became PulseGuard.
I began working on the idea. I looked at all the sensors available and checked how they could be best used — on a strap around the wrist or ankle or across the chest (the chest ones moved around too much so I chose to use the wrist). Trying it with Tom over the course of two years, it was clear it tracked all his seizures.
The monitor has made a big difference. We sleep better, have peace of mind and it has given our son the security he needs.
I have now set up a company to develop the system for others. PulseGuard is supported by the Epilepsy Society — it is hoped it may also help prevent Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy, when a person with epilepsy dies during or following a seizure for no obvious reason.
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘A change in heart rate could be an indication of a seizure — especially a significant one,’ says Dr Nicholas Silver, a consultant neurologist at The Walton Centre, Liverpool. ‘The device can only be helpful for parents worrying that their children could come to harm.’