Google Translate and iPhone Save Diabetic In Medical Emergency

Here’s a pretty extraordinary story: with the help of his iPhone and Google Translate, a state trooper managed to communicate with a diabetic Chinese man who was lying on the side of the road exhausted after driving nonstop from Montana to Oregon without insulin or food. The man was eventually transported to hospital where he recovered, but this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the iPhone, KVAL reports.

As KVAL writes:

Sgt. Pat Shortt and Senior Trooper Mike Holloran stopped a car near The Dalles around 3 p.m. Sunday after several complaints that the driver was impaired.

The car was driving westbound on I-84 at the time.

Once they stopped the car, they realized the 57-year-old man behind the wheel didn’t speak English. Rather, he spoke Chinese, Shortt said.

The troopers had a hard time communicating with the man, but noticed he was indeed showing signs of impairment.

That’s when Holloran opened up the Google Translate app on his smart phone. He used the translation app to speak with the man in Chinese and realized he was a diabetic, Shortt said.

Medical personnel arrived and confirmed the man’s blood sugar was very high and that he was undergoing a diabetic reaction. He was taken to a nearby hospital.

This just shows that there really is, to quote Apple, an app for that.

Henry Taylor-Gill

Henry is a student who is a huge Apple fan, and has used their products since day one. He can remember how happy he was when he received the first iPod back in 2001 as a birthday present. He has an international background, having spent most of his life in France but he now lives in the UK. He is also a native French speaker and can also speak Spanish at a decent level. In addition to tech, Henry is an avid sports fan and has his own sports blog.