The relentless Apple Watch takes the user to the emergency room just in time

Leave a Comment / By / March 18, 2023
of Cleveland News5 (via 9to5Mac) recently published a story about a man named Ken Counihan who loved using his Apple Watch. With the device on his wrist, Counihan tracked his workouts and listened to music on his Apple watch. “I’m very active and I like – I like what I do – calorie trackers. I take it out and charge it so I can use it during the day… I use it in bed as well – keep track of sleep too.”

The Apple Watch issued two warnings to one user on the same day, saving his life in the process

But the routine Ken had with the Apple Watch changed last October. He tells a story. “I was alerted back in October that my respirations were elevated. So basically you have a certain number of breaths per minute, basically said I went from 14 to 17 or 18,” Counihan said. “My wife asked me to call my son and she suggested I go to the outpatient clinic, get it looked at, which I did. And they just did an X-ray. And they put me on bronchitis medicine. right now.”

Apple Watch’s blood oxygen meter saved Ken Counihan’s life

So Counihan figured that despite the Apple Watch’s warning, he got off pretty easily (bronchitis is no walk in the park, but it beats having a serious heart condition). But when the Apple Watch detects a problem, it’s persistent. On the same day he was diagnosed with bronchitis, the device’s blood oxygen monitor went off. Once again, Ken gives us a play by play.

“My blood oxygen — which is normally in the mid-90s, which (it’s) supposed to be, kind of 95 and up — started going down to the mid-80s,” Counihan said. “It was 10 o’clock at night. My wife was very worried. My son was very worried. I was like, ‘I just want to go to sleep. I’m tired… and they were both like, “No, you have to go to the ER.” He went to the emergency room and this time after hearing the numbers provided by the emergency room Apple Watch, doctors ordered more tests.
Doctors discovered that Counihan was suffering from something more life-threatening than bronchitis. “They took me back for a CT scan and they found I had blood clots all over my lungs,” she said. According to Cleveland Clinic emergency physician Dr. Lucy Franjic, this was a serious condition that could have cost Ken his life. The doctor said: “Blood clots can actually become a life-threatening condition if not caught early enough.”

If he had ignored the alarm on his Apple Watch, Ken Counihan would probably have died overnight

Luckily for Counihan, his Apple Watch was working around the clock (no pun intended) alerting him to his SP02 level. The doctors said it was a good thing Ken went to the ER. This is because 60% of people with this disease at the same stage as Counihan go to sleep and do not wake up the next morning.

Dr. Franjic said he’s seeing more patients come to the emergency room with test results from his smartwatch and other devices. He says, “We have patients who come in and they notice these trends of ‘my heart rate is higher than usual’ or ‘it’s telling me that… I have an abnormal rhythm. And that’s why I have that information.” can only help the doctor try to diagnose the underlying problem and help prevent life-threatening emergencies.”

Not only does Counihan credit the Apple Watch with saving her life, but she also has friends who bought the device because of what happened to her. “I just had dinner with a friend the other night… and he’s also going to get an Apple Watch now. It saved my life. It’s amazing.”

Counihan was put on blood thinners and is doing much better.

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