Oliver Haslam·

Doctor Says That The Apple Watch Saved His Life After Being Diagnosed With A Heart Condition

The Apple Watch is building up quite the reputation for saving the lives of those who wear it and the latest story comes from Dr. Donald W Milne. The doctor told 9to5Mac that he found himself out of breath during exercise and turned to his Apple Watch for help.

The story goes that while out of breath, the doctor took an ECG using his Apple Watch and noticed that something wasn’t quite right. Dr. Milne picks up the story.

I have the first generation of the Apple Watch to be able to do heart monitoring. I know that the primary intended use is to monitor for atrial fibrillation. As a 66 year old anesthesiologist I use my watch for many occasions.

However a number of months ago I was working out on an elliptical machine, And I experienced more shortness of breath than usual for a workout. I used the ECG function to take an ECG at that time.

I observed ST segment depression on the tracing. That resolved and returned to normal with rest. This was again documented by the tracings.

I had no history of any heart disease prior to this incident.

After making an appointment with his own doctor he was later referred to a specialist who confirmed that something wasn’t right. He was later diagnosed with critical diffuse coronary artery disease and is currently awaiting surgery for a five-vessel bypass and aortic valve replacement.

While the Apple Watch wasn’t designed to find this particular issue and it was down to the doctor’s ability to spot something that wasn’t right, he still believes that the watch saved his life.

A long story short is that without the Apple Watch tracing I would never have known I had disease in time to be able to intervene before having a potentially fatal heart attack.

The Apple Watch has clearly saved my life.

We hope that Dr. Milne has a successful surgery and is back up and at the gym as soon as possible!

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