23-Year-Old Rushed to Hospital After Apple Watch Heart Monitor ‘Went Nuts’
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Yet another Apple Watch owner has credited the device’s heart sensing feature with helping to save their life.
The user, ClockworkWVVII, posted a story to Reddit over the weekend under the title “My Apple Watch just saved my life.” As the Redditor noted, they were simply laying in bed and watching TV when their Apple Watch alerted them to an irregular heart rhythm; specifically a heart rate that was “stupid fast.”
The Redditor called emergency services. But when paramedics arrived, they apparently found the user “in serious trouble.”
“Body went into shock, got rushed to the hospital in a stretcher, and got taken into trauma,” the Redditor said.
Reportedly, the user was suffering tachycardia and they passed out on the way to the hospital. Doctors conducted tests — including an ECG — and noted that while all chambers of their heart were beating normally, they were doing so abnormally fast.
A cardiologist later specified that the user has supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT. That’s defined as a condition in which a heart beats at more than 100 beats per minute, though it’s a broad term that can include many forms of heart rhythm problems.
The user was later discharged from the hospital, but needed to return for later testing and monitoring.
It’s especially notable because the rapid onset of symptoms. As ClockworkWVVII noted, they were feeling totally fine, but shortly after the heart rate alerts, “BAM, everything (went) nuts.”
“Thank you Apple for making an amazing accessory and tool that helps people stay not dead,” the Redditor concluded.
This is far from the first time that someone has credited the Apple Watch with helping to save their life. In fact, at this point, the wearable has an established reputation for alerting users to potentially dangerous and previously unknown medical conditions or allowing them to quickly contact first responders in an emergency.
Apple’s chief wearable has several different health- and safety-related sensors and features, including a heart sensor that can detect irregular heart rhythms. The latest product in the lineup, the Apple Watch Series 4, also has a built-in electrocardiogram (ECG) and automatic fall detection.
While the Apple Watch is arguably the flagship of Apple’s health ambitions, it’s only a single part of a much broader and “clear” strategy, according to a recent investors note penned by Morgan Stanley analysts.
Other parts of that strategy include developer tools like ResearchKit and CareKit, the iOS Health app, and ongoing development and research in the health sector. The broader goal is a health ecosystem that “puts the consumer at the center.”
Taking this into consideration with Apple’s increasing push into the services market, the Morgan Stanley analysts forecast that Apple has a prime opportunity to “lead digital disruption — much like what iTunes did for music or the App Store did for mobile services.”