Fitness Buff with Abdominal Pain Goes to ER, Credits His Life to Apple Watch
Credit: Studio Monkey / ShutterstockToggle Dark Mode
Brandon Schneider is a 25-year-old fitness buff and is the last person you’d expect to credit his life to the Apple Watch.
The Peloton sales specialist bikes, hikes and is a marathon runner, reports KABC-TV. But, an unexpected fall fractured his skull and nearly took his life away. If it weren’t for the timely response by his Apple Watch, Schneider likely wouldn’t be here to tell his story.
According to ABC 7, Schneider went to the emergency room with his father for extreme abdominal pain that had lasted for several days.
While he was in the restroom in the emergency room, Schneider unexpectedly lost consciousness.
“I remember washing my hands and thinking to myself, is something going to happen,” Schneider said to ABC News. “I don’t remember falling to the ground, or hitting my head, or anything of the events that followed.”
Immediately after he passed out, Schneider’s Apple Watch detected the hard impact of his fall. The Watch used haptic messages and alerts to wake him up, but he was unresponsive.
Within a minute, the Apple Watch sent out an alert to Schneider’s emergency contact, including his father, who was in the hospital with him. Schneider’s father alerted hospital staff, who rushed to help the unconscious man.
A CT scan showed that Schneider had fractured his skull and was suffering from life-threatening hematomas. Schneider was rushed into the operating room for emergency brain surgery. Schneider credits his Apple Watch and being at the right place at the right time. “And so if I weren’t in the ER at the time that this occurred, chances are, we might be telling a different story,” he said.
Schneider expects to recover fully from his ordeal and encourages people to set up their emergency contacts on their Apple Watch.
“Those who have an Apple Watch may be able to set up their emergency contacts, which I don’t know what sparked the idea in me sometime before this incident occurred to make sure I had that setup, but I want to encourage people to do that,” he said.
Setting up Emergency Contacts and Fall Detection on an Apple Watch only takes a few minutes and is certainly worth the time.
