An elderly Marion resident fell in her living room and laid on the floor four days before being discovered.

"Every time the mailman came or the paper man, I screamed help," 73-year-old Sandra Carpenter told Eastern Iowa Life.

Apparently, neighbors found her after her mail piled up on her porch. She ahd broken her hip.

The ambulance was called to the scene and Carpenter later recalled she had been lying on the floor for so long that she was, as she put it, "on death's door."

"They said my body was shutting down," she told Eastern Iowa Life. "They said my potassium is very low, my electrolytes are very low, my blood pressure was high."

After her near-death experience, Carpenter said she recommends every elderly person get a medical alert device.