Chalk up another life saved for the Apple Watch, as an Ohio resident’s Apple Watch has been credited with saving his life by warning him of an extremely high resting heart rate.
NBC24 reports that Zachary Zies, a 25-year-old recent graduate from Ohio State University – who is a long-time sufferer of Friedreich’s Ataxia, a rare genetic disease that can affect the brain, spinal cord, and heart, which can cause impairments in speech and difficulty in walking, as well as other issues – was informed by his Watch that his resting heart rate was too high.
Zeis had a resting heart rate of 210 beats per minute, which is an extremely high heart rate, and a possible indicator of an underlying heart health issue.
Zeis contacted his health provider and underwent an arterial ablation to correct what was determined to be an arterial flutter.
“The Apple Watch was pretty much telling me something is up, and you need to go in and get help to see what’s actually wrong,” Zeis told NBC24. The procedure brought his heart rate back down, and he says he’s at about 90% recovery today.
This just the latest incident where an Apple Watch has been credited with saving a life. In February 2020, an Oklahoma mom credited the Apple Watch with saving her son’s life by alerting him to an abnormally high heart rate.
However, detecting abnormally high heart rates isn’t the only way the Apple Watch has saved lives. In June 2020, a Grant, Nebraska, farmer credited his Apple Watch with saving his life. The wearable device automatically alerted 911 when 92-year-old Jim Salsman fell off a ladder, plunging 21-feet to the ground below.
