Apple Watch heart rate monitor saves Florida teen's life

The heart rate monitor on the device helped save the life of an 18-year-old suffering from undiagnosed kidney disease.

According to WFTS, 18-year-old Deanna Recktenwald, of the Tampa area, was at an area church recently when her Apple Watch gave her a notification: her resting heart rate had reached 190 beats per minute, recommending that she seek medical attention.

Her mother, a registered nurse, then took her to a walk-in clinic, and later to an emergency room, where doctors gave her a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, for which she had expressed no previous symptoms.

Stacey Recktenwald, Deanna's mother, later wrote a letter to Apple.

"If it wasn't for her Apple watch alarming her about her HR we wouldn't have discovered her kidney issue. I honestly feel your Apple Watch saved my daughter's life," Stacey wrote. "I am forever grateful to Apple for developing such an amazing, lifesaving product."

Tim Cook reportedly wrote back personally, thanking the Recktenwalds for sharing their story.

This is not the first instance in which an Apple Watch user has claimed the device saved their life. A woman late last year https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/19/iphone-and-apple-watch-emergency-sos-feature-save-woman-child-after-collision">used the Emergency SOS feature to summon police after a terrible car accident. And a man in New York, also in 2017, discovered a pulmonary embolism via HeartWatch, Men's Health reported.

46 Comments

radiotube 15 Years · 4 comments

About 6 years ago

The Apple Watch discovered Atrial Fibrillation in my heart the day after I installed the Apple Heart Study app. I've since had surgery and have it under control. My wife tells people it saved my life too.

lkrupp 19 Years · 10521 comments

When the Apple Watch gets a little more medically aware and stories like this one spread Apple won't be able to make enough of them. They will be flying off the shelves. So much for the negative blathering here about how the Watch doesn't do anything more than the iPhone and is therefore useless and redundant and won't sell and is a fail for Apple. Millions will be wearing them. Oh wait, they already are!

macxpress 16 Years · 5913 comments

lkrupp said:

When the Apple Watch gets a little more medically aware and stories like this one spread Apple won't be able to make enough of them. They will be flying off the shelves. So much for the negative blathering here about how the Watch doesn't do anything more than the iPhone and is therefore useless and redundant and won't sell and is a fail for Apple. Millions will be wearing them. Oh wait, they already are!

I very much agree...just like with other Apple products previous to Apple Watch, it will start to change people's lives. This is what Apple does and they think ahead even when others don't. They didn't just sit at a table and decide to make a watch. I'm sure they had a strategy and it takes time to develop the watch, get it to market and start to play out that strategy. Nothing happens over night.

I know that I hate when I sometimes forget to put mine on. I feel naked without it. I not only love to try and close my circles, but its also very handy for me to do a quick look at emails, delete the ones that don't pertain to me, use ApplePay with it, etc. I have an Apple Watch Series 0 (original) and its slightly slow for me which can get frustrating and I'd love to be able to get a new one at some point.

I see more and more people wearing them and these are people doing all types of work from teachers, students, retail workers, doctors, nurses, and other professions. I'm seeing more people wearing Apple Watches than Fitbits, or ugh, Android based watches.

This is something that happened on Tim's watch (no pun intended). God forbid Apple do something successful under Tim Cook and not Steve Jobs.

maciekskontakt 15 Years · 1168 comments

lkrupp said:

When the Apple Watch gets a little more medically aware and stories like this one spread Apple won't be able to make enough of them. They will be flying off the shelves. So much for the negative blathering here about how the Watch doesn't do anything more than the iPhone and is therefore useless and redundant and won't sell and is a fail for Apple. Millions will be wearing them. Oh wait, they already are!

You think so? There were monitors like that 10-15 years ago for half price. In fact I bought one and sent overseas for family member with terminal ilness. Nothing new. Yes they will be sold because of hype - not because of some special features that are new on the market. Thise hear rate monitors were not cool at the time - Apple watch is cool and in fashion. That is it. Nothing more.