The new Apple Watch Series 4 boasts an equally new fall detection feature that has already come to the rescue for at least one Apple Watch owner.
According to Swedish publication Aftonbladet, Apple Watch Series 4 was key in notifying emergency services for Gustavo Rodriguez when crippling back pain struck while he was cooking over a stove. The unexpected discomfort caused him to double over and collapse to the floor while the stove was fired up.
Rodriguez’s Apple Watch detected his collapse, and offered to call emergency services.
Gustavo, 34, suffered a sudden back injury and fell paralyzed down to the kitchen floor. “It felt like someone pushed a knife in the back,” he says. Luckily, his watch responded.
On Friday, Gustavo Rodriguez stood at the stove as usual and cooked food. Suddenly he felt strange tension in his back and he became increasingly difficult to touch the body. Gustavo tried to think about it. “But then I would move the frying pan and then just hit it. It felt like someone pushed a knife in my back, says Gustavo.
He fell down on the floor. The pain was so strong that it looked black on his eyes. He could not move. Then the wrist pounded and asked “Do you want to call 112?”. “My Apple Watch had known the case and wondered if it would call an emergency call,” said Gustavo.
The victim managed to crawl to the living room and get up on his couch. However, his phone was in another room, and he was disabled by the back pain.
Rodriguez managed to call his mother-in-law via his Apple Watch. She lived nearby and was able to come over and turn off the stove and call an ambulance.
Apple Watch fall detection is turned on by default for Series 4 owners who are 65 or older, or users can turn it on manually. The feature can also notify a emergency contact and also share the current location when a fall is detected and the watch user doesn’t respond.