Apple Watch saved my life: 5 people share their stories

No one noticed that Toralv Østvang fell that night and hit his head on the bathroom floor, except for his Apple Watch. Kacie Anderson got out of her car with her watch after an almost fatal accident caught her and her 9-month-old baby inside. The only warning that Heather Hendershot had that something was seriously wrong with her body came from her wrist.

These and other stories have a common thread. When Apple CEO Tim Cook launched the first Apple Watch in September 2014, he wasn’t exaggerating when he said it was the most personal device the company had ever developed. Since its inception, the Apple Watch has been a fitness coach, a health monitor, and a constant way to stay connected. And for some users, it was a lot more.

It even changed their lives for these people.

Toralv Østvang, 68, Oslo, Norway

Long-time tech reporter Torav Østvang has tested his share of Apple devices, but none has left more traces than the Apple Watch.

In February 2019, Østvang lived with friends outside of Oslo, Norway, where he lives. When he went to bed shortly after midnight, he was wearing his Apple Watch Series 4 so he could test a sleep app. He has no memory of his fall later that night or how he got back to bed.

“The first thing I remember was lying in bed and having a terrible headache,” says Østvang. “”I touched my face and felt blood. “ He hovered in and out of consciousness until he woke up in a lighted room and three police officers were standing above him.

At around 4:00 a.m., he got up to go to the bathroom when he saw a sudden drop in blood pressure. He fainted and landed face first on the bathroom floor. Its breakdown triggered the Apple Watch’s fall detection feature (a new Series 4 feature) that automatically notifies emergency services if they don’t move after a minute after detecting a serious fall.

“Nobody heard my fall,” he says. “My friend and his wife heard nothing about it until the police car came to their door.”

After the local police were alerted, she contacted his wife, who could give them the full address of their whereabouts.

“They could see the GPS coordinates where I was, but they couldn’t see exactly which apartment I was in,” says Østvang.

They immediately took him to a nearby hospital. He had three facial fractures and his chin bone was being dented. Though cautiously saying that the Apple Watch saved his life, he admits that it saved him from surgery.

“They say it is important to get to the hospital as soon as possible,” said Østvang. “The call and the police did it very quickly.”

Kacie Anderson, 26, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

It was the peak of rush hour on a rainy Friday night in Maryland, just a few days before Christmas. Kacie Anderson was in the back seat on the way home with her 9-month-old son Parker when she stopped at a busy intersection along the freeway. Her husband was just a few cars behind her.

“I was actually looking out the window when I suddenly felt that tremendous force on the left side,” says Anderson. “My face hit the steering wheel, came back, hit the front of my headrests, and then threw me back into the side window.”

They had been hit by a drunk driver who had driven 100 km / h.

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“The first thing I could think of was, ‘Is Parker okay?’ I could hear him screaming, “she says. “I could smell gas coming out of the car, but I couldn’t see anything.” She reached for her phone to call for help, but the crash had blown everything up and she couldn’t find it. As she searched, her hand pushed against her wrist and she remembered that she was wearing her Apple Watch. She hit the digital crown and said, “Siri, call 911.”

When her husband reached the site of the wreck, the ambulance had already arrived. “You could tell where I was without really knowing it,” says Anderson. “I don’t know anyone could have approached the car, it’s such a busy street.”

Kacie later wrote a letter to Tim Cook thanking him for the Apple Watch that blamed her for getting out of this wreck. Apple contacted her to share her story with others in the UK Apple Watch Real Stories campaign video later in the year.

Heather Hendershot, 27, Pomona, Kansas

At 26, Heather Hendershot didn’t think she had to worry about her health. She was young, athletic and had no previous illnesses.

After putting her children to bed one night, she and her husband were sitting on the couch when they heard a beep on their Apple Watch. She looked down and saw a notification that her heart rate was over 120 beats per minute.

“I thought the clock should be wrong because I couldn’t feel my heart racing,” she says. “I didn’t feel anything was wrong.”

In 2017, the Apple Watch added high heart rate notifications to the watch that let users know when their heart has risen above a certain level. Although Hendershot’s heart rate continued to rise all night, she still felt no symptoms. The next morning, her husband insisted that she go to the emergency clinic as a precaution.

There they carried out sore throats and flu tests. Both came back negative, but their heart rate was so high that they decided to keep monitoring them.

“Until I heard the doctors mention the intensive care unit, I realized how serious the whole situation was,” she says.

The doctors diagnosed her with hyperthyroidism, in which the thyroid gland produces excess thyroxine hormone. If left untreated, life-threatening complications can arise.

“I’m not someone who accidentally checks their heart rate,” says Hendershot. “So I’m very confident that I couldn’t have seen it without the Apple Watch.”

Jason Saucier, 45, Orlando, Florida

Jason Saucier hadn’t felt like him in a few weeks, but he didn’t know how serious it was until his Apple Watch sounded the alarm.

“As soon as I put on my watch, there was a sound that I had never heard before,” he says. “I looked down and it became clear that I was in a fib.”

In addition to the high heart rate warning, the watch shows whether your heart rhythm indicates atrial fibrillation, a type of heart condition that can increase your risk of stroke and other serious heart complications.

He still went to work that morning, but was on the same alert throughout the day. He also had breathing problems, but it wasn’t until some of his staff mentioned that he looked like a ghost that he finally decided to go to the emergency room.

“When I got there, the cardiac team was right with me and said that I was on the verge of cardiac arrest,” said Saucier.

The doctors confirmed what the watch had told him was in a fiber. They kept him in the hospital overnight, but he moved out of aFib and they could discharge him the next day.

Exactly a week later, the same notification appeared on his Apple Watch.

“I came home from work, had dinner and sat on my couch and just couldn’t catch my breath,” he says.

This time Saucier listened to his watch and immediately returned to the emergency room. He stayed in aFib for three days and kept him in the hospital for two more days while monitoring his response to a new heart drug.

Since this second episode in September 2019, he has no longer received any notifications from his Apple Watch. He credits the new drugs, but continues to use the Apple Watch to keep an eye on his heart.

“It’s like a security blanket,” he says. “I think it will probably be an ongoing thing for me for the rest of my life. And it’s good that I have this watch that helps me monitor it.”

George Kometiani, 32, Brooklyn, New York

His weight had increased on him for years, but it was only when he was 30 that George Kometiani really felt that his almost 300 pounds affected his health.

“It was hard to go up the stairs. My knees clicked because of the pressure,” he says. “And then the snoring came in.”

His doctor at the time warned that if he did not lose 30 pounds, his snoring, which affected his sleep, would likely worsen and require medical intervention.

He decided to face the challenge of losing weight. He started changing his eating habits and replacing takeaway from his desk with healthier options, and as soon as he did, the pounds began to melt. He was surprised at how quickly he lost the first 30 pounds, but he also lost muscle, which was not what he intended, and his snoring never ceased.

“At that point, the Apple Watch was launched,” he says.

Kometiani made a conscious effort to close his movement ring – the red circle on the watch that shows calories burned – every day, and he began to pay attention to it Challenge challenges that would appear on his screen. The day after a hard workout, for example, the Apple Watch would make him achieve the previous day’s success. What he did over and over again.

“It really helped me understand how much effort I had to put into my day,” said Kometiani. “These little things really help from a non-judgmental, disconnected perspective.”

Within a year of starting his health kick, Kometiani had lost £ 100. His snoring disappeared along with his other health problems: joint pain, back pain, headache. And he was a lot happier.

“You don’t understand how many weight restrictions you have around you … I couldn’t even ride a roller coaster,” he says. “Now I feel like I can do anything.”

Although these stories are only from the people I’ve spoken to, a quick Google search will result in dozens of more similar ones. ZDNet author in September 2018 Jason Perlow described his own experience with the Apple Watch after it found out he was in aFib.

And I had discovered my own little health fear from the Apple Watch. In October 2018 during I tested the EKG function In Series 4, both devices saw next to a medical EKG at the University of San Francisco Medical Center that I had an early heartbeat. While it’s ultimately harmless, Dr. Gregory Marcus from UCSF Medical Center know that I should make sure that it continues.

If you or someone you know are affected by the Apple Watch, please share your story with us in the comments section below.