A Kentucky woman received an Apple Watch for Christmas in 2018, a gift that ended up possibly saving her life. The woman says the wearable device alerted her to an atrial fibrillation condition five months later. That alert allowed her doctors to treat her for the heart condition, which can lead to a stroke.
As reported by WHAS 11 on Wednesday, Rosemary Stiles, received an Apple Watch as a gift from her boyfriend in 2018. Stiles wanted the device to keep in touch with her children while on the go.
That Christmas gift paid off in ways Stiles never dreamed of.
“I just fell asleep in my chair and my watch vibrated,” said Stiles. “When I looked at it, it said that it had detected A-Fib and I needed to see a doctor.”
Atrial Fibrillation is the most common type of irregular heartbeat. APRN Tara Mudd explains. “You have a lot of signals that are firing off abnormally and it makes the top part of the heart not squeeze like normal.”
Stiles said she had indications there was something wrong before her Apple Watch alerted her.
“I felt tired, I was run down,” said Stiles. “I had no energy. I would get up in the mornings and I could do a little bit of stuff around the house but then after a few minutes, I would have to go sit down in a chair, and it wouldn’t be long before I would fall asleep.”
Once she received the alert from her Apple Watch, she sought help from health professionals, who confirmed the Afib diagnosis. APRN Tara Mudd says Stiles’ case was one of the first she has seen in which AFib was initially indicated by Apple Watch.
Apple added Afib detection to the Apple Watch’s health-related features in 2018. Series 4 and Series 5 users can perform a simple ECG measurement, which will alert users if it detects an issue.
