A 29-year-old Cincinnati woman named Kimmie Watkins is crediting her Apple Watch for saving her life after it helped doctors discover a life threatening blood clot in her lungs.
Paige Barnes at WKRC in Ohio has the report:
Watkins wears her Apple Watch with pride, hoping her scare will convince others to consider the technology that’s out there.
“It might be seen as staying too connected or something, but I think it can be helpful in a health sense, and not just in a connect to people sense,” Watkins said.
Watkins also learned she has a clotting disorder that she never knew about. She’s working on getting her stamina back and is now on blood thinners.
How she learned about the deadly blood clot in her lungs is something the Apple Watch can do for everyone. Apple Watch can measure your heart rate throughout the day and recognize if your heart rate is elevated while you’re not active.
That’s what happened when Kimmie Watkins was taking a nap after feeling lightheaded and winded. While she was asleep, her Apple Watch detected an irregular heart beat of 178 beats per minute. This triggered an alert that woke her up.
“I’m very lucky and that, if my nap hadn’t ended, that my partner would have found me, maybe asleep on the couch, not actually sleeping instead of what did happen,” she said.
After seeking medical attention, she was told she had a saddle pulmonary embolism, which has a 50% fatality rate. This condition limits blood flow through both lungs.
Learn how to enable heart health notifications on your Apple Watch from Apple Support.
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