Apple Watch saves another life: Alerts 13-year-old about a serious, undetected heart condition

It looks like the Apple Watch has saved one more life. A teenager in Oklahoma has credited the Apple Watch for alerting him about a serious heart condition that would have otherwise gone undetected.

It looks like the Apple Watch has saved one more life. A teenager in Oklahoma has credited the Apple Watch for alerting him about a serious heart condition that would have otherwise gone undetected. (REUTERS)

It looks like the Apple Watch has saved one more life. A teenager in Oklahoma has credited the Apple Watch for alerting him about a serious heart condition that would have otherwise gone undetected.

According to a report on KFOR News, 13-year-old Skylar Joslin was sitting in class when an alert about his heart rate popped up on his Apple watch. Joslin was smart enough to immediately send a text to his mother.

"I got a text message along with a screenshot of his heart rate that was 190," Joslin's mom said.

Skylar sent another message to his mother stating that he suspected something was wrong since he was not engaged in any physical activity at that point.

Skylar's mother drove to school quickly, picked him up and took him to the nearest emergency room. His heart rate had escalated to 202 bpm by then.

At the hospital, Skylar was diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT), a condition where electrical irregularities in the heart lead to an abnormally fast heart rate. SVT can arise abruptly and Skylar's Apple Watch allowed him to detect that something was wrong. SVT is not life-threatening but it can get progressively worse if left untreated over time.

Skylar eventually underwent a procedure called a cardiac ablation to treat the condition.

"If I wouldn't have gotten his Apple Watch, I don't know that I would've ever known. I mean it's unknown how long it would've been going on or how long it would've really taken," Skyler's mom said.

Strictly speaking, the Apple Watch did not save Skylar's life in this case, but it did alert him of an abnormality which he managed to get treatment for before it was too late. There have been other cases where the Apple Watch has actually saved lives, for example, Freire Jr's Apple Watch alerted him about his unusually high heart rate and he was ultimately diagnosed with a type of arrhythmia that can result in a stroke or heart failure if left untreated.