Earlier this year, the Apple Watch was in the spotlight for a good reason. The fall detector feature was said to have saved a man’s life when he fell hard while in the bathroom and became unconscious. Here is yet another interesting story of how the features-packed Apple Watch came to the rescue of a man. This time around, the heart rate monitor did the job.
The story goes that 48-year-old Paul Hutton, a technology writer in England received a warning that his heart rate is too low, thus prompting him to visit the ER. Usually, the most common feature is the ability to detect when a heart rate is too high. But two years ago, Apple included the ability to scan and detect low heart rates which save the man’s life. While at rest, the normal heart rate is between 60bpm and 100bpm. However, Paul’s smartwatch alerted him that his heart rate was dropping to 40bpm at rest. At the hospital, the doctor’s removed caffeine from his diet but that didn’t have any effect as the watch continued detecting a low heart rate.
EDITOR’S PICK: Xiaomi Mi A3 review: Is it a downgrade?
When that didn’t work, Hutton was referred to a specialist who diagnosed him with ventricular bigeminy. This is an irregular heartbeat that comes after a regular heartbeat and prevents blood from being pumped out effectively. A cardiac ablation surgery was performed on him. In clear terms, it is a procedure that burns small areas of the heart in order to destroy the tissue in the muscular organ that is causing the problem. Hutton has since recovered from the surgery, for which he was sedated but fully awake.
Yet again, the Apple Watch has proven that the difference between life and death could be the smartwatch. Apart from heart rate, the latest Apple Watch Series 4 also comes with an electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor that checks for abnormal heart rhythms like Atrial fibrillation (AFib). This can lead to blood clots, stroke and heart failure and other issues. This feature has also been adopted by other smartwatch makers like Samsung, Huami etc. The Amazfit Verge 2 has an ECG version while the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is tipped to launch with the feature.
UP NEXT: Honor teases the Honor Magicbook Pro in promo image
(source)
