Hong Kong Man Becomes Latest to Say Apple Watch Saved His Life

Gaston D’aquino Apple Watch Save Life Credit: South China Morning Post
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Yet another Apple Watch owner is honoring the wearable’s heart monitoring function for helping to save his life.

Hong Kong resident Gaston D’Aquino, 76, was at mass on Easter Sunday this year when his Apple Watch gave him an alarming notification alerting him to a spike in his heart rate, he told the South China Morning Post.

D’Aquino said he had read about similar incidents with the Apple Watch before, so he knew “it was something serious.” He skipped an Easter lunch with family to go straight to the doctor.

“I thought that going to the hospital was that important,” he told the Post. “It was a strong signal, not ambiguous. It said I had an elevated heart rate.”

When he got to the hospital, D’Aquino told doctors that he didn’t know why he was there, but that his wearable had alerted him to a potential issue.

“(The doctor) says ‘Are you feeling anything’ I said no, I feel fine, I’m feeling all right, nothing’s wrong,” he said. But after hospital staff hooked him up to an ECG machine, they immediately referred him to cardiologists.

“I told them about the Apple Watch giving me this reading, and they told me that the watch gives pretty accurate readings,” he said. After a series of extensive testing, doctors discovered that, out of three coronary arteries, “two were completely blocked, and was one 90 percent blocked.”

In other words, the simple decision to skip lunch and heed his Apple Watch’s warning very well may have saved his life. “In short, I was a walking time bomb,” he said.

Learn More: 7 Times an Apple Watch Helped Save Someone’s Life

That came as a shock to the semiretired diamond trader, who is generally healthy and didn’t display any critical outward symptoms. After undergoing an angioplasty, the man says he is feeling much better.

Now, D’Aquino wants to share his story to bring awareness to the Apple Watch’s lifesaving capabilities. And he has a simple message for Apple Watch owners: “Listen to the warning. I could have gone for lunch, but I chose to go to the hospital. It gives you a choice. If you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will do it.”

He later sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook, recounting his story and expressing his gratitude to the Cupertino tech giant. The subject line was simply: “Thank you, Apple Watch saved my life.”

“Please continue promoting the use of the Apple Watch for anyone with cardiac problems,” D’Aquino wrote in the email. “I lost a cousin two weeks ago to a massive heart attack, and if he had an Apple Watch, he might have had the same opportunity I got – to live.”

The Hong Kong man’s story is just one of a slew of similar incidents. Just this month, an 18-year-old woman from Florida and a 32-year-old New York man both credited the Apple Watch with saving their lives.

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