Apple Watch credited with saving another life after user suffers a ruptured ulcer
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.
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.
Comments
Who in their right mind would ignore a bleeding rectum?
I agree. This is good PR for Apple, but in this instance the guy would have gone to the doctor even without an Apple Watch.
So everyday wearables have this added benefit when fitted with the right sensors and apps.
I wouldnt minimize the value of the Heart app with comments like, “Well he/she/they would/should have figured it out themselves”, that’s just stupid.
These reports, life saving or not, are going to drive many more sales to an aging, health conscious population. Good for them, and shame on the naysayers.
That reads like the notification came "soon" after the bleeding, not before.
As GeorgeMac points out, a high heart rate is sometimes not recognized for what it is. I'm not a medical professional but in my experience few except medical professionals check their HR/pulse when they don't feel well. Athletes, professional and otherwise will probably do so. Most of the rest of us may take our temp, but not our pulse.
'Saving his life' may be a stretch. A lot of people are reluctant to go to the doctor. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, if they abate for even a few minutes some people think they've dodged a bullet when they should have been getting to hospital. The number of people who don't go because they're afraid of getting bad news, is astounding.
As always with news articles, there's a great chance we're not getting all the information, and what we are getting may not be entirely or at all accurate.
The linked article said after he started bleeding , he told his mother he 'didn't feel well' and she said 'he looked like a ghost'. Based on the symptoms and notification they went to hospital. That tells me, unlike all the 'anybody should know' medical experts, they didn't realize the seriousness of the condition and drove for 30 minutes instead of calling an ambulance. During that drive he said he 'was bleeding all over the place' compared to his first earlier symptoms.
We don't even know if he knew he had an ulcer. Many ulcers go undiagnosed until they can't be ignored.
Would they have left sooner without the notification from the Watch? I don't know. Nor do I know if a delay from the time of the notification to the time of seizing, LOC, and profuse bleeding, wouldn't have made a difference.
Articles like this, while possibly crediting 'saves' undeservedly, do raise awareness on many levels. Maybe when somebody says 'I don't feel well', taking someone's pulse or checking their fitness device, Apple Watch or otherwise, will be as automatic as feeling their forehead.
So his doctors saying 'saving his life' may have been a stretch, it may not have. As always, we're free to believe or not, based on the information we do or don't have.