Apple Watch flashes timely ‘red alert’, saves woman's life whose heartbeat had stopped

Apple Watches, more than any other smart wearables in the industry, have saved many people with heart conditions and severe falls by providing timely alerts and allowing them to receive immediate medical attention.

In a recent case, an English woman recently claimed her Apple Watch saved her life after it flashed a ‘red alert' warning on the device.

In April 2018, Elaine Thompson experienced a string of seizures and sought epilepsy treatment. She underwent the suggested tests, and the outcomes were normal. However, she kept having seizures, so the doctors gave her medication to prevent them.

Ashleigh, the 59-year-concerned old's daughter, bought her an Apple Watch in February 2022. When the mother-of-two awoke one day, she noticed a 'red alert' warning flashing on her smartwatch. "When I woke up one day there was a red alert. It advised me to see a doctor so I did and showed them the results the watch had recorded," Thompson told The Sun.

The results of her tests were normal, but the doctors put her on a waiting list for a heart monitor. She finally received the heart monitor in November 2022.

Her sleep and daily movement patterns were recorded by the monitor. The shocking results in January 2023 revealed that the monitor recorded no activity of the brain waves or heartbeat for 19 seconds. She now has a pacemaker for the rest of her life.

"My daughter rang me and told me I needed to go into hospital urgently and the doctors were trying to get hold of me. I went in and they told me that my results showed I'd flatlined for 19 seconds. They told me it was an electrical fault with my heart and that I needed to be fitted with a pacemaker. I had it done the next day and now I have it for life. But it's a relief I went to get it looked at, otherwise, I might be dead," she told The Sun.

Thompson told Manchester Evening News that her Apple Watch "saved her life." "It saved my life. If I hadn’t had the alert I wouldn’t have brought it up with the doctor. Now I wear the Apple Watch all the time."

Thompson, according to the Sun, was suffering from atrioventricular block, which is a heart block in which the heart beats more slowly or in an abnormal rhythm.

Many people before Thompson asserted that their Apple Watch had saved their lives. The heart rate or ECG apps on the smartwatches use built-in electrodes to measure the electrical signals passing through the user's heart.

Apple Watch Series 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Ultra all come with the ECG and heart monitor app. However, Apple Watch SE doesn't support ECG.

As long as there is skin contact, the watch can measure heart rate. However, alerts for irregular heartbeat are only available on devices running watchOS 5.1.2 or higher.

Aside from heart rate and irregular rhythm, Apple smartwatches offer wrist detection, haptic notifications, and blood oxygen level measurements.