A 36-year-old man from Flitwick in Bedfordshire, UK, is praising the Apple Watch for discovering an undiscovered heart issue in yet another instance of the wearable saving lives. Author Adam Croft, according to a BBC article, discovered his Apple Watch indicating that his heart was in Atrial fibrillation when he woke up at midnight. The smartwatch just indicated that his heartbeat was irregular.
He told the publication, “I never anticipated to use this feature. Croft claimed that one evening he had gotten up from a sofa after feeling lightheaded. He then “immediately felt the world closing in” when he went up to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water.
“I managed to get down on the floor and ended up in a pool of cold sweat,” he said.
Next morning, he saw multiple alerts from his Apple Watch. He then called UK medical helpline 111 who advised him to go to the hospital. “I called 111 (UK medical helpline) who said get to hospital within the hour,” he told BBC in the interview.
Upon further testing at Bedford hospital, it was confirmed that Croft was in Atrial fibrillation (AFib). For those unaware, AFib is an irregular, often very fast heart beat rhythm that can result in the formation of blood clots. It can interrupt blood flow, causing palpitations, chest pain, and breathlessness, increasing the risk of stroke.
Croft says that he may have never gone to the hospital if he had not received alerts from Apple Watch. He has also experienced ‘little flutterings’ of the heart previously, but the watch missed them. However, these have not occurred in the months, he added. “I never had any pain or symptoms that I thought were serious,” he said.
