Apple Watch continues to prove successful in not only helping users achieve health and fitness goals, but also in saving lives, the most recent being William Monzidelis, who nearly died from an erupted ulcer earlier this month.
Credit: NBC New York
Monzidelis, 32, was at work in early April when he started feeling dizzy and headed to the bathroom. Shortly after, he started bleeding and soon got an alert from his Apple Watch warning him that his heart rate was at an alarming level. The device recommended Monzidelis seek medical attention.
His mother, Nancy, rushed him to the hospital. On the way, Monzidelis drifted in and out of consciousness and continued to bleed from his mouth and rectum, ultimately losing 80 percent of his blood. Due to the severe blood loss, he had to receive an emergency blood transfusion before being rushed into surgery.
Doctors on the scene credited Apple Watch with saving Monzidelis' life, saying he most likely would have ignored his symptoms and not received medical treatment in time. Monzidelis, who lives in New York and works at his family's bowling alley Bowerland, generally considered himself in good health and agrees with the doctors' assessment.
"I would have been working in my office and they would have found me dead," he said.
It isn't clear if Monzidelis' symptoms were discovered by Apple's Heart Study app, another similar title or the device's built-in heart rate monitoring features.
The Apple Heart Study is available as a free download on the App Store and launched as a partnership with Stanford to research Apple Watch's ability to detect irregular heart rhythms. Alternatively, Apple provides a standard feature capable of detecting elevated heart rates, a physiological response sometimes related to life-threatening ailments.
Apple Watch has a long history of alerting users to potentially deadly health predicaments. Just yesterday, Apple Watch was credited with saving an 18-year old Florida woman who was suffering from undiagnosed kidney disease.
Beyond health tracking functions, Apple Watch also boasts communications tools that can help save lives. Last year, a woman used the device's Emergency SOS feature to contact first responders after a drunk driver hit her car.