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Jewish Mom Creates App For College Students Needing Emergency Services

After her college-age daughter needed to go to the emergency room but didn’t have a way to contact her, a Jewish mother helped to create an app that stores such information and also provides other services college students may need in a serious situation.

Gail Schenbaum Lawton was inspired to develop the app, called Umergency, after her daughter Alex’s thumb nearly had to be amputated after an accident but Gail was unable to contact her during her hospitalization. The app’s website estimates that nearly one in four college students end up in the emergency room every year.

The app, which is free for college students and $7.99 per year for family members, also has features such the ability to quickly alert emergency contacts, GPS location tracking, a directory of local emergency services and the ability to save insurance information and a pre-signed medical consent form.

Schenbaum Lawton is a Hollywood producer and a member of a Reconstructionist congregation in Pacific Palisades, California.

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink

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