Apple Watch helps discover 12-year-old's rare cancer

AppleInsider

A young girl's family credits the Apple Watch's heart monitoring features with saving her life -- by helping to discover cancer rarely seen in children.

Apple Watch

One evening, Imani Mile's Apple Watch began alerting the 12-year-old to an abnormally high heart rate.

Mile's mom, Jessica Kitchen, took her to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with appendicitis. During the procedure, they discovered a neuroendocrine in her appendix, which is rarely seen in children.

The doctors then learned that the cancer had already spread to other parts of Mile's body. She had surgery at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital to remove the remaining cancer.

"If she didn't have that watch, it could have been so much worse," Kitchen told Hour Detroit.

In July, the Apple Watch helped doctors discover a rare tumor in a woman's heart after she received multiple warnings that her heart was in atrial fibrillation.

Read on AppleInsider

macseeker

God bless Apple Watch.

(AppleInsider management:  There is a very serious problem with your article website since it doesn't accept commentary from it's members.  Maybe the website software needs to be scrapped.)

I had to post this from the forum webpages.

lkrupp

macseeker said:

God bless Apple Watch.

(AppleInsider management:  There is a very serious problem with your article website since it doesn't accept commentary from it's members.  Maybe the website software needs to be scrapped.)

I had to post this from the forum webpages.

This has been broken for years and no fix.

kuyangkoh

Soon….test for diabetes and blood pressure perhaps??. Game over for competition and then EU and US will file for antitrust. 

pulseimages

Why don’t they mention which specific Apple Watch detects these things?

chasm

pulseimages said:

Why don’t they mention which specific Apple Watch detects these things?

All of them do this.

jimh2

This has to be one of the most misleading articles published in a long time. The scare line of "If she didn't have that watch, it could have been so much worse," is downright outrageous. Should everyone run out a buy a watch on the outside change it could identify an issue that might identify an unrelated issue? Were this the case we all need to do monthly body scans to look for issues.

This will be a sensational and inaccurate news story as it is too shocking to pass up. The watch did not detect anything other than an odd heartbeat. The boy in question had appendicitis which comes to fruition (pain) fairly quickly for those with or without a watch. The diagnosis, related imaging, and corrective surgery for it are routine. The medical term for discoveries like this is "incidental". A real world example for which I have first hand knowledge of is a stroke victim who had the standard CT Scan of the brain to identify the damaged areas. The image extended to the top part of the lungs where a nodule was identified. This site can do better than sensational headlines and what amounts to "fake news".

pulseimages

chasm said:

pulseimages said:

Why don’t they mention which specific Apple Watch detects these things?

All of them do this.

I thought only the ECG sensor on an Apple Watch can detect atrial fibrillation and the SE doesn’t have that sensor. 

pulseimages

jimh2 said:

This has to be one of the most misleading articles published in a long time. The scare line of "If she didn't have that watch, it could have been so much worse," is downright outrageous. Should everyone run out a buy a watch on the outside change it could identify an issue that might identify an unrelated issue? Were this the case we all need to do monthly body scans to look for issues.

This will be a sensational and inaccurate news story as it is too shocking to pass up. The watch did not detect anything other than an odd heartbeat. The boy in question had appendicitis which comes to fruition (pain) fairly quickly for those with or without a watch. The diagnosis, related imaging, and corrective surgery for it are routine. The medical term for discoveries like this is "incidental". A real world example for which I have first hand knowledge of is a stroke victim who had the standard CT Scan of the brain to identify the damaged areas. The image extended to the top part of the lungs where a nodule was identified. This site can do better than sensational headlines and what amounts to "fake news".

It was a girl not a boy that had appendicitis. 

iqatedo

pulseimages said:

chasm said:

pulseimages said:

Why don’t they mention which specific Apple Watch detects these things?

All of them do this.

I thought only the ECG sensor on an Apple Watch can detect atrial fibrillation and the SE doesn’t have that sensor. 

Heart rate - the atrial fibrillation was a second instance unrelated to the core report.

fidonet127

jimh2 said:

This has to be one of the most misleading articles published in a long time. The scare line of "If she didn't have that watch, it could have been so much worse," is downright outrageous. Should everyone run out a buy a watch on the outside change it could identify an issue that might identify an unrelated issue? Were this the case we all need to do monthly body scans to look for issues.

This will be a sensational and inaccurate news story as it is too shocking to pass up. The watch did not detect anything other than an odd heartbeat. The boy in question had appendicitis which comes to fruition (pain) fairly quickly for those with or without a watch. The diagnosis, related imaging, and corrective surgery for it are routine. The medical term for discoveries like this is "incidental". A real world example for which I have first hand knowledge of is a stroke victim who had the standard CT Scan of the brain to identify the damaged areas. The image extended to the top part of the lungs where a nodule was identified. This site can do better than sensational headlines and what amounts to "fake news".

Having had appendicitis as a child, it would have been nice to have detected the high heart rate, and not have to go through the pain. Every medical website says with cancer it is better to detect it early. As it was, the cancer had spread. Ok, appendicitis happens quickly enough to be detected without the watch. How much more would the cancer have spread during that time?

Incidental, it maybe, however even monthly scans won't do it as those are snapshots. There isn't enough doctors, nurses, to do the job. Plus time out of the day, fuel usage of transportation. Then there is the issue for some people, vital signs at the doctor's office is different than at normal situations. Just by having a device to take simple heart rates,   we figure can out something is wrong, and we should go see a doctor, etc. I've even seen high heart rate notifications when I'm not feeling well.

edited October 2022

daalseth

jimh2 said:

This has to be one of the most misleading articles published in a long time. The scare line of "If she didn't have that watch, it could have been so much worse," is downright outrageous. Should everyone run out a buy a watch on the outside change it could identify an issue that might identify an unrelated issue? Were this the case we all need to do monthly body scans to look for issues.

This will be a sensational and inaccurate news story as it is too shocking to pass up. The watch did not detect anything other than an odd heartbeat. The boy in question had appendicitis which comes to fruition (pain) fairly quickly for those with or without a watch. The diagnosis, related imaging, and corrective surgery for it are routine. The medical term for discoveries like this is "incidental". A real world example for which I have first hand knowledge of is a stroke victim who had the standard CT Scan of the brain to identify the damaged areas. The image extended to the top part of the lungs where a nodule was identified. This site can do better than sensational headlines and what amounts to "fake news".

I think you are being overly harsh. Your comment about, “should everyone run out and buy a watch on the outside chance…” is applicable to any medical monitor. Should everyone run out and buy a blood pressure cuff? Well, it would find more problems, that’s up to them. And as far as, “appendicitis which comes to fruition, (pain) fairly quickly,” In this case it appears the AW saved the child the pain. Is that not a good thing? Maybe we should tell people not to have a thermometer on hand? I mean after all a fever, comes to fruition and is obvious without one. But wouldn’t it be better to detect it at 99 degrees, not when it reaches 102? If the AW had a hand in the discovery of the cancer, that is interesting information. 

And also by finishing your comment with the term “fake news” you lost any remaining credibility you had. 

marc g

The heart rate sensor has been especially help for me over the last few years. My heart rate rarely goes below 90bpm due to the fact that I live with pretty intense back pain 24/7. Where it’s helped these last few years has been in letting me know that my resting heart has been much higher than normal, knowing this has acted as a warning if I was headed for an anxiety attack. Sometimes, I was able to stop the attacks before they really started. This is every time but it’s helped. 

xyzzy01

This is overselling the Apple watch role in this - it didn't detect the cancer, and appendicitis is a routine diagnosis and procedure.

Fall detection, the heart rate monitoring, etc has saved lives, but this is a case where the Apple watch was insignificant.

mustseeuhdtv

Interesting. My nephew received an Apple Watch series 7 from my sisters (his aunts) and my mom (his grandma), but the watch stated during setup that he was too young (14) for some of the health services, so he never wears it….