"Alert to a pulmonary embolism": when the Apple Watch saves lives

The Apple Watch saves lives. If this slogan has not yet been used by the company to promote its connected watch, it describes the experience of Kimmie Watkins well. During a nap, this 29-year-old American was alerted by the connected watch that her heart rate was abnormally high. By consulting her doctor, the latter then diagnosed her with a pulmonary embolism caused by a blood clot, which could have degenerated if she had discovered it later.

In the story, told by the American media Local12, the heart rate of Kimmie Watkins reached a total of 178 beats per minute, the equivalent of an athlete in full effort. It is the optical heart rate monitor integrated into the watch that made it possible to raise this strangely high number of beats.

“The alarm woke me up to tell me that my heart rate had been high for a long time, for more than 10 minutes precisely,” she told Local12. Following this initial diagnosis, the doctors also discovered that she suffered from a bleeding disorder, which she did not know existed.

This is not the first time that the Apple Watch has played a decisive role in this way. On the web, similar testimonies are multiplying. Last February, a user told on the social network Reddit how his Apple Watch Series 7 began to send him worrying warnings about his pulse, deemed too fast by the connected watch. At the hospital, the emergency doctors discovered that he had internal bleeding.

A year earlier, the American site Cbsnews interviewed a 67-year-old American woman recounting how her connected watch had alerted her enough to her heart rate for her to go to the emergency room and finally discover that she had a rare tumor in the heart.

Apple relies on its health and safety alert systems to make a difference with its competitors. For the iPhone 14, for example, the company has launched a satellite connection, which allows the holder of the smartphone to contact the authorities in the event of an emergency in an area without a network.

This paid feature, named Emergency SOS, notifies an Apple employee of the urgent request sent by the user. The employee in question is then responsible for notifying the competent authorities. Last May, a Californian search and rescue team came to the aid of 10 hikers who disappeared in a canyon, after they gave the alert via this SOS function.