What you need to know
- A Brazilian man's life was saved after his Apple Watch told him about his extremely elevated heart rate.
- Jorge Freire Jr's Watch told him his heart had been beating above 140 BPM for 10 minutes.
- He rushed himself to the ER where he was diagnosed with Tachycardia.
A Brazilian man's life was saved by his Apple Watch after it alerted him to his elevated heart rate.
As reported by 9to5Mac, Jorge Freire Jr shared his story about how his Apple Watch alerted him to his elevated heart rate:
I was coming back from São Paulo when my Apple Watch started buzzing. I check the message, which read "Your heartbeat is above 140 for over 10 minutes" or something.When I checked the Heart Rate app, the surprise: 170 BPM. As I was just taking a walk, there was no way my heartbeat would be that high.I went home and laid down for half an hour to see if my heartbeat would go back to normal. It stabilized at 160 BPM, I was having tachycardia.I ran to the ER. When I showed my heartbeat on the Watch to hospital staff, they immediately sent me in to be checked. My blood pressure was super high and I was indeed having tachycardia. That little watch was 100% correct.
Tachycardia is an increase in heart rate that occurs whilst you're at rest, usually caused by an abnormality in the heart. It can sometimes prove harmless but can lead to cardiac arrest untreated.
According to Freire's story, he was prescribed medication by Doctors and is now on the mend. He thanked Apple saying:
I can say the Apple Watch saved me. I wasn't feeling a thing and could've spent hours with that tachycardia, which could've resulted in you know what…Because of this episode, I highly recommend everyone the use of this gadget. It could mean the difference between life or death. No kidding. And that's considering the ECG function hasn't been released in Brazil yet, I hope it comes soon.I want to thank both the doctors and Apple.
Not only that, Apple CEO Tim Cook even emailed Jorge saying:
"Jorge,Happy New Year.I'm so glad you are fine now. Thanks for sharing your story with us- it inspires us to keep pushing forward.Best, Tim"
