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Apple Watch helps save the life of teen athlete in Oklahoma

Apple Watch notifies users of any detected abnormal heart activity

Last updated

Another life was saved with the assistance of an Apple Watch — this time a teen athlete in Oklahoma was alerted to an unusually high heart rate while in class.

The middle school student received an alert on his two week old Apple Watch stating he had a high heart rate of 190bpm, despite being seated in class. He immediately texted a screenshot of the alert to his mother.

"I got a text message along with a screenshot of his heart rate that was 190," the teen's mother said. "The following message saying, mommy, there's something wrong. I'm not doing anything."

There had been no known issues with the teen's heart prior to this event. He was ultimately diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia, or SVT.

Without the Apple Watch alert, it is unknown when they would have discovered this heart condition, or how much it would have progressed. Thanks to the early discovery, he was able to be saved, and spent nearly 8 hours in surgery to fix his heart rhythm.

After a few tests and some monitored time playing football, he has since returned to full health, and released to play.

The event was reported by a local news station, Oklahoma's News 4.The teen wears his Apple Watch everyday and recommends anyone get one for their own heart health awareness. He will be the face of the Oklahoma American Heart Association Heart Walk on April 25.

This is not the first time we've seen a story of Apple Watch assisting in a diagnosis or saving someone. Jeff Williams is on record saying that it is the best news of the day when he arrives at work to find another email saying "Apple Watch saved me." Apple even shared videos detailing real stories of people who had been saved from an alert on their Apple Watch.



34 Comments

midwestapplefan 13 Years · 116 comments

When you’re heart is racing at 190 bpm when you’re sitting still. I don’t think you need a watch to tell you something is wrong. 

caladanian 10 Years · 380 comments

When you’re heart is racing at 190 bpm when you’re sitting still. I don’t think you need a watch to tell you something is wrong. 

Sometimes this happens when you sleep!

pascal007 18 Years · 122 comments

When you’re heart is racing at 190 bpm when you’re sitting still. I don’t think you need a watch to tell you something is wrong. 

While some people are aware of their heartbeat, most people aren't. Also, most people would be very uncomfortable with a heart rate of 190, but athletes' hearts are used to this, so athletes won't feel out of breath. All this to say that it is very likely that he, indeed, wouldn't have noticed that his heart was having a free game.

ivanh 12 Years · 596 comments

How many lives had not been saved even though they were wearing Apple Watch? 

What’s the percentage of life saved wearing an Apple Watch?

If you don’t provide the figures together, merely saying that “an Apple Watch saved another life” is a disgraceful advertisement.

Don’t hard-sell it, please.

ivanh 12 Years · 596 comments

Apple should give every one in the Diamond Princess an Apple Watch too.