We’ve heard stories of how the Apple Watch’s heart rate monitor has saved lives in the past by alerting users to abnormally high (or low) heart rates. One of the features of the Apple Watch Series 4 is the ECG feature which was recently enabled in the latest watchOS update, and now it looks like it could have potentially saved its first life (that we know of).In a post on Reddit (via 9to5Mac), a user by the name of “edentel” shared a story of how the ECG feature on his Apple Watch showed that he was experiencing Afib. Apple did warn of false positives but after checking several times, wearing it on different wrists, and putting it on the wrist of his wife (which showed a normal rhythm), it kept showing the same results which prompted him to make a trip to the doctor.
Upon reaching the doctor and explaining his situation, he was taken to the front of the line and given priority and was immediately hooked up to another ECG machine, in which the results were the same as those of his Apple Watch to which the doctor told him, “You should buy Apple stock. This probably saved you. I read about this last night and thought we would see an upswing this week. I didn’t expect it first thing this morning.”
The story kind of cuts off there as edentel writes that he will be heading to a cardiologist. We’re not sure what the outcome might be, but for now it appears that early detection of Afib might have saved his life.
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