USA TODAY International Edition
‘IT SAVED MY LIFE’
Wearables such as Apple Watch and Fitbit are notifying users of medical emergencies
Deanna Recktenwald received an unusual notification from her Apple Watch Series 2 in April 2018.
“Seek medical attention,” the display read after the 18-year-old’s resting heart rate skyrocketed to 190 beats per minute. A normal resting heart rate for adults 18 and older is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The Tampa Bay area teenager, who said she didn’t feel any alarming symptoms, was immediately taken to an urgent care facility by her mother, Stacey Recktenwald. Doctors told the family that the high school senior was in kidney failure.
“Without this watch, I fear she would’ve been one of the kids on the news – the healthy kid that goes off to college and dies in their sleep,” Stacey told USA TODAY.
There is a growing list of testimonies that demonstrate how smartwatches are going beyond fashionable lifestyle conveniences or workout tools, doubling as SOS signals during sudden medical emergencies.
Utah native Michael Glenn, 34, said that he bought a used Fitbit so that he could occasionally count calories and monitor his eating habits. In 2018, the device alerted him that his heart rate was a sluggish 40 beats per minute, well below what is considered normal.
“My wife had to convince me to go to the hospital,” Glenn said. After immediately being airlifted for emergency surgery, Glenn found out his right coronary artery was 100 percent blocked and his central artery was 80 percent blocked.
“Doctors said I had a 50/50 chance of survival,” Glenn said. “I’m just a husky guy who bought a Fitbit so I could continue toeat more pizza. Turns out, it saved my life.”
An Apple Watch saved Christina’s Ling life in December, according to the Edgewater, New Jersey resident.
“The watch told me that my heart rate was 150 even though I was sitting idle for 10 minutes,” said Ling, 45. After going to the hospital, she found out she had a cardiac tamponade, abnormal fluid around the heart.
“My heart was basically suffocating,” Ling said. “But what’s really crazy is, I thought it was just the flu and I never set up my Apple Watch to send me any health alerts. It totally saved my life.”
In the case of the Florida teenagere, the Apple Watch’s emergency notification propelled the entire family to get checked for kidney disease. Deanna’s mother, three sisters and father all tested positive.
The wellness devices’ ability to identify medical emergencies and underlying health conditions aren’t just by happenstance.
These gadgets were designed that way. Since 2014, Fitbits, which aren’t FDA-approved medical devices, have used tracking technology to monitor heart beats automatically, all-day, during workouts and beyond.
This perpetual tracking can give wearers of the device the ability to document heart rhythms that may not be picked up during a planned trip to the doctor’s office.
There are several features for Apple Watch that are able to help people in dire circumstances including the ability to call 911 right from the wrist, fall detection, irregular heart rhythm notifications and an ECG app.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told USA TODAY: “I think you’ll be able to look back at some point in the future and Apple’s greatest contribution will have been to people’s health.”