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WHEN MARTIN SIMENC'S father had a stroke back in the 1990s, he knew he'd have to make some safety changes to his father's home.

He installed grab bars along the walls and added stair railings to the garage to make it safer for his father, who had decreased mobility and was using a walker.

Simenc's father recovered from the stroke, but the event changed Martin Simenc's life. The safety changes planted a seed about a new business, and Simenc went on to start a home safety business in Foster City called Home Safety Services.

The goal: making homes safe for seniors and babies.

"Seniors and babies are the most vulnerable people, and injuries to them can be life-changing events," said Simenc, who gave up a solid corporate job at Hewlett-Packard Co. to start down the entrepreneurial path. As a mechanical engineer, Simenc was a property risk manager at Hewlett-Packard. He helped prevent accidents at the workplace and decided to take the philosophy to the home environment.

The humanitarian concern of easing people's minds with safety solutions gives him greater rewards than the corporate world, he says.

"Our customers really appreciate how we're helpingthem," Simenc said. "It's for the elderly and young, but it also eases the mind of family members."

Mary Louise Zernicke, a health-care manager for Alameda County's Area Agency for Aging, recently helped her 80-something mother by putting in grab bars in the shower at her mother's San Mateo home.

"It's for peace of mind for me and her," Zernicke said. "She says she's using them and feels much more confident." Zernicke well knows that falls by seniors can be serious and are the No. 1 cause of seniors having to be institutionalized.

Simenc's business is growing at a 15 percent annual clip, and it's expected to climb even faster as Baby Boomers age.

For seniors, typical help includes indoor and outdoor stair railings, grab bars, wheelchair ramps, walker ramps, enhanced lighting and hand-held showers and non-slip tub strips.

"It's about prevention," Simenc said.

It's also about prevention for the other half of his business. That would be the so-called "baby proofing" of the homes of new parents.

No doubt, infants and small children can get into big trouble around the house in ways people don't even think of.

# posted by Medical Information : 5:14 AM