The fact Apple Watch monitors your heart rate is, for most of us, a neat little inclusion and nothing more. It’s certainly not where the bulk of its appeal comes from, but when you hear of it legitimately saving someone’s life, that attitude starts to shift a little.
Brooklyn man James Green received a notification from his HeartWatch app telling him his resting heart rate was continually high as shit. That, along with some other symptoms prompted him to act on the situation.
Green had a pulmonary embolism which was confirmed with a CT scan. He was then rushed to hospital and put on blood thinners to reverse the damage done by the blood clot. Incredibly, his doctor told him that if he had waited any longer, “it would have been fatal,” Green told The Telegraph.
“It was the data I needed to prove this wasn’t just a panic attack. It helped me get the ball rolling.” As you can imagine, his tweet about the incident attracted a ton of attention.
https://twitter.com/_jamestgreen/status/918849102741458944
The kind of data the HeartWatch app keeps an eye on is pretty important to Green, who’s actually had a pulmonary embolism before. While his watch is a couple of years old now, he says the app runs pretty well on the dated hardware, something he’s very thankful for.
HeartWatch even got back to him on Twitter, wishing him a speedy recovery.
Thanks! Also wow! This is so fantastic that you are ok. Humbled to have played a part. Wishing you a rapid recovery & best of future health.
— HeartWatch (@HeartWatchApp) October 14, 2017
As wearable technology gets smaller and more advanced, you can expect to hear a lot more stories like this one. We spoke to Telstra‘s chief scientist about the topic a little while ago who says one day it’ll be so good, we’ll be rushed to hospital before we even realise anything’s wrong. You can check that out below.
So there you go, your Apple Watch has actually got your back. Or, uhh, heart.
