Apple Watch alerts high heart rate, saves 29-year-old woman's life from fatal blood clot

A 29-year-old woman from Cincinnati, Ohio, is crediting her Apple Watch for saving her life after it alerted her of a dangerous blood clot in her lungs.

Kimmie Watkins was taking a nap when her Apple Watch alerted her that her heart rate had been too high for over 10 minutes. Her heart rate had spiked to 178 beats per minute, which is typically only achieved by athletes at their peak performance.

Watkins went to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a saddle pulmonary embolism, a severe condition that occurs when a blood clot blocks both the main arteries to the lungs. The survival rate for this condition is only 50 per cent.

Watkins underwent surgery to remove the blood clot, and she is now recovering well. She credits her Apple Watch with saving her life, and she is urging others to use the watch's health features to monitor their own health.

"A saddle pulmonary embolism is the most severe and life-threatening of all, because it's a blood clot that saddles both the blood vessel to the right lung and to the left lung," said Dr. Richard Becker, a cardiologist at the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine.

"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," a report by Local12 quoted her as saying.

She added, "I was asleep for about an hour and a half before my watch woke me up with this alarm that said that my heart rate had been too high for too long. So for over 10 minutes, it was too high."

Watkins is currently on blood thinners and regaining her stamina.

This is just one of many stories of how Apple Watch has helped to save lives. The watch's heart rate monitoring feature has been shown to be effective in detecting atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that can lead to stroke. The watch also has features that can track sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Besides physical health, Apple has been putting a lot of emphasis on mental health in recent years, and WWDC 2023 was no exception. The company announced a number of new health features for watchOS 10 that are designed to help users track and manage their mental health.

One of the most notable new features is the ability to log your momentary emotions and daily moods. This can be done by using the Mindfulness app, which allows you to scroll through engaging, multidimensional shapes to choose how you are feeling. You can also select what is having the biggest impact on you, and describe your feelings.

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