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Apple always talks about how the Watch can save your life. And in one woman’s case, it was true. Elain Thompson is the latest to claim that the Apple Watch saved her life.
She suffered from seizures in 2018, and as part of a post-diagnosis treatment, her daughter recommended that she wear an Apple Watch to monitor her health.
The Apple Watch detected something wrong with Thompson’s heart rhythm and alerted her to the issue. Thompson then went to visit the cardiologist, and was fitted with a heart monitor for a week. In one instance, the monitor sent an alert to the hospital, after her heart had stopped in her sleep for 19 seconds. Doctors were able to then diagnose her with a heart blockage and were able to install a pacemaker to help with the condition.
In talking with The Independent, Thompson said that the Apple Watch “saved my life. If I hadn’t had the alert I wouldn’t have brought it up with the doctor. Now I wear the Apple Watch all the time.” This is all thanks to the ECG app on the Apple Watch that helped Thompson discover a previously undiagnosed heart condition.
Many doctors recommend wearing an Apple Watch
Many doctors have been recommending wearing an Apple Watch, especially in their older patients. And Apple has really been talking that up in recent years. It added the ECG or Electrocardiogram, in the Series 4 Watch, which has been approved by the FDA. There are a few other health features included in the Apple Watch like temperature tracking and blood oxygen. But not all of them are approved by the FDA. However, they have been proven to be pretty accurate.
With the ECG app, it is able to detect signs of an atrial fibrillation, an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots in the heart. It is also able to save these readings in the Health app on the iPhone, and even send a PDF of this to their doctor for help.