Numerous accounts highlight the Apple Watch’s ability to alert users to potentially life-threatening health issues. A recent case from New Zealand vividly illustrates the device’s preventive health capabilities.
Amanda Faulkner, a consultant psychiatrist in Napier, New Zealand, made the switch to the Apple Watch Series 10 last year after using her husband’s previous model. One significant enhancement in the Series 10 is the Vitals app, which monitors overnight metrics such as heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, blood oxygen levels, and sleep quality. Each morning, users receive a report indicating any abnormalities in their health metrics from the previous night.
In a conversation with The New Zealand Herald, Faulkner recounted how her Apple Watch alerted her several times about her resting heart rate rising from a typical 55 beats per minute to the 90s. Initially, she suspected a malfunction with her watch. However, as the notifications persisted, she opted to consult her doctor and share her watch data.
Her general practitioner referred her to the emergency department, where subsequent testing confirmed she had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a rare form of blood cancer. Doctors informed her that had she delayed her visit by just a few days, “she could have died from her untreated cancer and its complications.”
The day after (January 9), she was transferred to Palmerston North Hospital.
Currently, Faulkner remains in the hospital, undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
In July, she is scheduled for a stem cell transplant in Wellington, where her bone marrow will be replaced with that of a donor from Europe, effectively providing her with a new immune system (July is the soonest possible date due to staffing and bed availability).
The stem cell procedure carries a 20% mortality risk, as she mentioned.
“Honestly, if it weren’t for my smartwatch persistently alerting me, I might not have recognized that something was wrong,” Faulkner stated. Her husband, Mike Faulkner, concurred, saying the Apple Watch “made a life-altering impact” and significantly improved his wife’s odds of overcoming cancer.
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