An Apple Watch anniversary gift saved life of a 58 years old user with asymptomatic arrhythmia

Equipped with several health features, Apple Watch is often reported as a life-saving device for some users, especially those with undiagnosed heart conditions. During American Heart Month, the company has shared such a heartwarming story of a grateful couple who discovered the husband’s asymptomatic arrhythmia just in time to be rushed to the hospital.

Last September, Lori March gave her husband Bob an Apple Watch for their 17th wedding anniversary. Bob was always reluctant to spend on himself, so when Lori presented him with the Apple Watch she told him, “An investment in your health is an investment in our future.”

Apple Watch detected elevated heart rate of a former athlete and saved his life

58-years-old Bob March, a former college-level athlete received an Apple Watch from his wife as an anniversary gift. After checking his pulse on the Heart Rate app, “his first reading showed 127 beats per minute.” Over the next few days, Bob and Lori noticed a persistent and regular pattern of “more erratic heart rate readings” after he had finished his run.

“I thought, ‘this is nuts,’” Bob says. “If I was easing into a run, or cooling down, I’d definitely be hitting numbers like that.”

And to their surprise, the routine physical visit to the doctor landed Bob in the ER.

Doctors found an arrhythmia, which caused Bob’s heart to work in overdrive. They said it was like he had been running a constant marathon for the past few weeks and if left unchecked, the results could have been devastating.

In his letter to the medical team before his surgery, Bob penned down his emotions and the will to live on so that he can enjoy the joys of life more. He wrote that he only scheduled an appointment after noticing his elevated pulse on his Apple Watch.