Over the past few years, when Apple announces the Apple Watch, they’ve really leaned into the fact that it can save lives. Basically showing you that if you don’t buy one, you might die. Why is this? Well, because it has saved many lives. And here we are with yet another story of this being the case.
A woman from Oklahoma, Judith Luebke, is crediting her Apple Watch with saving her life. Originally, Luebke had attributed the high heart rate notification on her Apple Watch with the stress of recently losing her spouse. However, co-workers insisted that she go to the doctor. Luebke went to the hospital and doctors were then able to diagnose her with Diabetes for the first time. She had critically high blood sugar levels and didn’t know about her condition.
Luebke told KSWO that if she had “waited the weekend, I probably would not have survived.” Which is what she, and likely most of us, would have done if she had not gotten the notification. Of course, the recent passing of her spouse definitely didn’t help, as she figured that she was just not feeling well, which is very understandable.
The Apple Watch is more than a fitness tracker
While the Apple Watch first launched as a sort of competitor to a Fitbit that can also give you notifications on your wrist, it has since turned into a huge health product. While the Apple Watch can already identify a number of things, like the high heart rate notification that saved Luebke’s life. It can also help with Atrial Fibrillation, thanks to irregular rhythm notifications, and even take an ECG. Apple does have a pretty big disclaimer with the ECG app, telling you that it never checks for heart attacks, but it is FDA cleared.
And Apple isn’t stopping there. Back in 2011, Apple purchased a startup called Avolonte Health which has a small office in Palo Alto, California. Which has been tasked with some rather unique features for the Apple Watch, one of those being a Glucose Monitor, which would be huge for Diabetes patients. It also has plans to detect blood pressure and sleep apnea, and even include a health coach service.
While these all sound pretty impressive, one might wonder how this could compare with what the doctors and nurses use in hospitals. Well, we don’t know just yet, as these features have not even been announced. But knowing how accurate the heart rate is already, expect blood pressure and glucose readings to be similarly accurate. This is going to help Apple to continue that theme of Apple saving people’s lives.
2023-11-08 15:04:57