We’ve all heard the stories before of lives being potentially saved just with the fact that the victims happened to wear an Apple Watch. The watch has been credited before for uncovering life-threatening conditions and warning its users of potential dangers. As reported by Apple Insider, such was the case with Marcella Lee’s son, an otherwise healthy 16-year-old. Marcella is a San Diego news anchor who documented her experience on the CBS8 news site and stated the following regarding her recent skiing trip to Colorado with her son:
We took ibuprofen drank a lot of water to stay hydrated and figured it would just take a couple of days to acclimate…By Friday morning, my 16 year old son said he didn’t feel well enough to ski…By nighttime when I checked on my son, I noticed his lips were a bit blue and so were his fingertips…It was dark and it was late and I couldn’t really tell if I was seeing things, if he really was blue.
Marcella then remembered the oxygen saturation measuring feature of her Apple Watch and had the idea to put her watch on her son. Her worst fears were then confirmed when the watch revealed a frightening 66% oxygen saturation, a number that was later confirmed to be off by just one percent when her son was later taken to the emergency room.
Tests at the hospital also confirmed that fluid was building up in her son’s lungs and he was immediately diagnosed with HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema), which can be life-threatening. In fact, the medical staff warned Marcella that had she waited it out and let him sleep it off, her son could have eventually slipped into a coma.
This is yet another example of how technology can work for us, instead of against us. Marcella is, of course, extremely thankful that her son was treated in a timely manner and has now recovered. She also credits her Apple Watch with saving her son’s life, a fact that she won’t soon forget.
