A 29-year-old woman from Cincinnati, Ohio, credited her Apple Watch with saving her life after it alerted her to a blood clot in her lungs.
Kimmy Watkins was taking a nap when her Apple Watch alerted her that her heart rate had been too high for more than 10 minutes. Her heart rate increased to 178 beats per minute, which is usually only experienced by athletes during hard work. Apple Watch alerts high heart rate, saves 29-year-old woman’s life from fatal blood clot
Watkins went to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with saddle pulmonary embolism, a serious condition that occurs when a blood clot blocks both major arteries in the lungs. The survival rate for this condition is only 50 percent.
Watkins underwent surgery to remove a blood clot and is now recovering well. She credits her Apple Watch with saving her life, and is urging others to use the watch’s health features to monitor their own health.
University of Cardiologist Dr. “Saddle pulmonary embolism is the most serious and life-threatening of all, because it is a blood clot that saddles a blood vessel to both the right lung and the left lung,” said Richard Baker. Cincinnati College of Medicine.
She added, “I slept for about an hour and a half before my watch woke me up with this alarm, which said my heart rate had been too high for too long. So for more than 10 minutes, the heartrate was very high.”
This is just one of many stories of how the Apple Watch has helped save lives. The watch’s heart rate monitoring feature has been shown to be effective in detecting atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that can lead to stroke. The watch also has features that can track sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
In addition to physical health, Apple has placed a lot of emphasis on mental health in recent years, with the company announcing a number of new health features for watchOS 10 designed to help users track and manage their mental health.