In recent news, Apple watches have been the reason for saving some lives by monitoring their heart rates. WatchOS 4 was installed in Apple watches which when enabled; the feature tells the owner if their heart rate beats per minute is elevated after 10 minutes of inactivity. HeartWatch app will track your resting heart rate and notify the user of their heart rate elevating when resting.
These Apple watches have gained popularity over the years and with the ability to alert users of elevated heart rates, potentially saving their lives, it improves over time. Several accounts of people talking about how these watches saved their lives have been reported.
A high school football player was training and after several hours after, he noticed his heart rate was still at 145 beats per minute. After going to the hospital with concerns, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a syndrome linked to muscle injury when muscle tissue s broken down and releases protein into the bloodstream. The doctors told the young man that if he went to practice the next day he could have lost muscle control and could’ve died.
Another account was a lawyer who used the Apple watch to track his sleep schedule a couple of nights a week. Scott Killian bought the watch because it alerted him of tasks, meetings, and important things, but was surprised when the watch is the reason he is alive today. Scott recently had a stress test done and was cleared without issue by doctors. One night at 1 am Scott’s watch woke him up alerting him his heart rate was elevated around 121 beats per minute, so he went to the hospital. He was very reluctant to go since he had the stress test done, but when he got there he was given unexpected news.
Scott was hooked up to an EKG machine, and when the results were in, he was told his Apple watch was accurate with his beats per minute being high. After a blood test, it was revealed that his enzymes were high signaling a heart attack was happening or about to happen. They tested Scott some more, only to find out he had four blocked arteries and needed stents in all four of them. Scott was surprised to find this it after he paid so much to get the stress test done because had he kept sleeping he could’ve died in his sleep.
The same account happened to a man in China, where his watch alerted him and after tests done at the h
ospital showed he had 3 arteries completely blocked, and the fourth was 90% blocked. If ignored, he would have died of a major heart attack. These men have shared their stories grateful for a second chance at life.
Technology continues to advance every day and hopefully it will lead to a future where we can save people’s lives and help them make healthier choices. Apple Watches have shown that it is possible and with time, anything is possible.
