76-Year-Old Gaston D'Aquino Latest to Say Apple Watch Saved His Life

[Roadstar]

Again, if you're a business traveller it's even worse. I might go two days without charging something.

That shouldn’t be a problem with the Series 3. I still had 25% of battery left when I put my watch to charge after two full days since the last charge. If I needed to stretch the charge further, I could’ve used low power mode as well, but I didn’t have to go there.

 

[IJ Reilly]

That shouldn’t be a problem with the Series 3. I still had 25% of battery left when I put my watch to charge after two full days since the last charge. If I needed to stretch the charge further, I could’ve used low power mode as well, but I didn’t have to go there.

My strategy for stretching the charge is to turn off wrist raise to wake. This seems to cut power consumption by at least half. My Series 0 uses about 10-30% of a full charge in a day, depending on how often I tap it to wake (and how early I put it on in the morning).

 

[the-msa]

Am i the only one who thinks it's pretentious that apple always refers to their devices without an article?

"Apple watch saved a life". It's not a person.

"The/our apple watch helped save a life"

 

[pdaholic]

How many coronary arteries are there in the heart? There are three main coronary arteries that provide oxygen and nutrients to the myocardium (heart muscle). These include: the right coronary artery, left coronary artery and the circumflex artery.

So two were blocked and one was operating at 10%, so that is 66% blocked and the other is 90% blocked, so a grand total of 3.3% of blood supply flowing in the body. And he felt fine. Does nobody stop to think about things any more, that they are so blinded by brainwashing propaganda that they will suck up this nonsense like a sponge with no shame whatsoever? Even defend such an absurd proposition?

The main problem in this day and age is that people are told what to think but not HOW to think.

My job involves me looking at patient’s heart catheterizations, and I’ll say it is actually quite frequent that people who end up going for a heart cath are found to have severe levels of stenosis in multiple arteries. The body is able to make “collaterals” or extra blood vessels that end up compensating for the blocked main vessels. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle and don’t put much stress on your heart, you may never feel it. Heart attacks happen because one day those cholesterol deposits break off and a clot forms over the stenosed area, blocking any flow that was present and killing heart tissue which is painful.

 

[viperGTS]

Awesome. Unless you can't charge it every day, which in that case it's worthless.
I still struggle to understand why is it that the apple watch can't have more than 1 day of battery.

The inability of the watch to hold a super long charge is irrelevant. Quit your whining and charge the watch before you go to bed.

 

[dtich]

Mine goes off every time I'm nervous (such as a flight take off) or when I'm sitting still and bouncing my leg since I wear my watch lose.

I had to turn it off.

or just raise the bpm setting a bit..?

 

[freezelighter]

Great Apple! Now lower the prices of your products. I get a heart attack every time I see the price of a Watch that has the potential to save my life.

AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

 

[bryan.cfii]

I am no doctor, but isn't your heart rate dependant upon your weight? I thought the maximum heart rate decreases if you lose weight. Why not check for the users weight in this page itself, otherwise wouldn't there be a lot of false alarms??

Max heart rate generically is a function overall heart health. Age can naturally effect it, but thats usually due to overall health of the heart muscle.

Resting heart rate is a response to tissue oxygen need.
Muscles are some of the biggest consumers of oxygen and various ones are more sensitive to oxygen depletion than others depending on whether they are type 1, 2 a, or b, blah blah blah...

Over weight people ask said muscles to do more because the fat content of their bodies is disproportionate to what the muscles are capable of.
This is going to load them up and tax them more, all the time, so naturally over weight people have higher heart rates. Everything for them takes more effort, like normal weight people carrying 70 lbs back packs would.
Losing weight would decrease that natural load on the heart so it would lower the resting heart rate.

What this guy experienced was that the phone and watch said he was stationary from the accelerometers, then saw an acute elevation in heart rate.

How it discerned this elevation was due a problem versus watching a scary movie I don't know unless its capable of some sort of EKG signal read somehow. I don't know. I'm just guessing on that.

 

[eladnova]

They should implement a treatment for Essential Tremor just like the Microsoft “project Emma” wrist band. Badly needed by millions around the world.

 

[nylonsteel]

good. should get 1. and gift another 1

 

[Swift]

Mine goes off every time I'm nervous (such as a flight take off) or when I'm sitting still and bouncing my leg since I wear my watch lose.

I had to turn it off.

Never went in for an examination?

 

[bbednarz]

Never went in for an examination?

Sounds like he was able to narrow it down to a specific incident. Mine has gone off a few times, twice shortly after I had gone for a run and once when I was nervous waiting to hear some personal news. If you can narrow down what was causing it then I don't see a need to go see the doctor. Although, turning it off all together seems like an interesting choice..

 

[neliason]

I fail to see how elevated heart rate due to anxiety is a false alarm, though. Sounds like cause for concern to me.

I see what you mean. I guess it depends on what elevated heart rate means. I don’t think anxiety caused elevated heart rate is the same kind of concern as other elevated heart rates.

 

[philosopherdog]

I sleep with my Watch on and a couple times I’ve received an elevated heart rate notification. The only time I’ve received them is in the middle of the night when I’m sleeping.

I would go and get tested. Sounds like sleep apnea perhaps. The heart rate should be lower at night not elevated. Good luck.

 

[Apache1]

LoL
On the more serious note, imagine how many more lives could be saved if the price of Apple Watch was more accessible...

This is where France or EU step in and mandate what Apple will do to ensure that all people have access to Apple watches at half price.

 

[Arndroid]

Yeah. We actually went to the ER because the Apple Watch alerted my wife about this. They monitored her for 2-3 hours, concluded it was an anxiety attack, and went home with nothing but a bill. Even after insurance covered most of the bill, we still paid enough that it was nearly as much as the cost of the Apple Watch in the first place.

So... you know... it's great that it can catch issues like this... it does have a noticeable false alarm rate. I've got a decent health plan and job, so I could afford to pay for that false alarm (and the watch in the first place), but I can imagine the false alarms having disastrous consequences for others...

An anxiety attack is not a false alarm.

 

[Tech198]

"I told the doctor I don't know why I'm here, but my watch tells me I have an elevated heart rate," said D'Aquino. "He says, 'Are you feeling anything?' I said no, I feel fine, I'm feeling all right, nothing's wrong."

lol. classic. People will say just about anything to make a good Apple Watch story

 

[ErikGrim]

I sleep with my Watch on and a couple times I’ve received an elevated heart rate notification. The only time I’ve received them is in the middle of the night when I’m sleeping.

I get this at times when I’m stressed too.
[doublepost=1526174409][/doublepost]

Maximal heart rate (HR) is age-dependent.
Max HR = (220 - age in years)

Lower resting heart rate can be a sign of good health/fitness

Just thought I’d help clarify this since I am a cardiologist

My maximal heart rate is 184 according to that formula, but I frequently reach 206-207 during exercise. Is that good or bad?
[doublepost=1526174947][/doublepost]

Am i the only one who thinks it's pretentious that apple always refers to their devices without an article?

"Apple watch saved a life". It's not a person.

No, but it is a proper noun and thus no article needed.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

Nice try of the Marketing team of apple, this story...

First: there is just a very weak correlation of elevated heartrate and ongoing myocardial infarction. This story will lead to blocked Emergency rooms by people just having elevated heart rates - and they will block people with ongoing real coronary problems from being treated. Because the ER will be full of „wrongly alerted apple users“ with good health.

Second: You don‘t need an expensive apple watch to diagnose an elevated heart rate, every fitness- bracelet for less than 100 bucks will serve for it as well.

Third: someone at age of 76 years with three further serious factors of risk for coronary disease (elevated blood pressure, diabetes, hyperlipoprotemia) should have passed an effort-test with ECG instead long before.
Patients with these risk factors should also consider a diagnostic aproach of their carotidian arteries because they have an elevated risk for hemiplegia.

Elevated heart rate is not at all the leading diagnostic sign of ungoing coronary disease.

Have a look here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_artery_disease

Summary:
Weak selling of apple watches should not be reason for the marketing team to generate fear and play with the fear of people leading to the wrong believe that purchasing an apple watch will protect you anyway.

As a medical doctor I am really very, very disappointed by apple to act this way just to sell more apple watches.

 

[robbyx]

My maximal heart rate is 184 according to that formula, but I frequently reach 206-207 during exercise. Is that good or bad?

It's not good. Depending on your fitness level, you should not exceed between 60 and 90% of your maximal heart rate. You are exceeding it by a large amount. Either you are pushing yourself WAY too hard or there's an underlying issue that hasn't been diagnosed. I'm no doctor, just a "health nut", but I would definitely talk to your doctor about it and make sure you stay under that 90% number. My max heart rate is 175. I try not to exceed 155 when exercising. If I get higher than that, I slow down.

 

[FilipeTeixeira]

The inability of the watch to hold a super long charge is irrelevant. Quit your whining and charge the watch before you go to bed.

I feel that I have repeated this 1000 times on this thread. When I travel or hike, I can't charge it for more than 3 days.
And no, I'm not going to carry power banks as a traveler, and even less as a hiker. Whining? People nowadays can be just rude and aggressive because they are online. This is just absurd.
[doublepost=1526182738][/doublepost]

My strategy for stretching the charge is to turn off wrist raise to wake. This seems to cut power consumption by at least half. My Series 0 uses about 10-30% of a full charge in a day, depending on how often I tap it to wake (and how early I put it on in the morning).

Do you think that even by cutting all that it would be possible to actually make it last 4 days? Just curious.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Mine goes off every time I'm nervous (such as a flight take off) or when I'm sitting still and bouncing my leg since I wear my watch lose.

I had to turn it off.

Increase the alarm limit. Obviously above some point it will become useless but below that point and the false positive point it will provide some utility.
[doublepost=1526184768][/doublepost]

LoL
On the more serious note, imagine how many more lives could be saved if the price of Apple Watch was more accessible...

Come on, don’t be ridiculous. You can buy one for about 250$. A used one even cheaper. Admit it you don’t want one you just want to throw stupid shade.

 

[homeuser911]

Gaston D'Aquino says the Apple Watch saved his life. By sharing his story, he hopes it can help save the lives of others too.

Photo Credit: South China Morning Post​

According to the South China Morning Post, the 76-year-old was sitting at church when his Apple Watch alerted him to his elevated heart rate. Having read similar stories before, he went directly to a local hospital.

"I told the doctor I don't know why I'm here, but my watch tells me I have an elevated heart rate," said D'Aquino. "He says, 'Are you feeling anything?' I said no, I feel fine, I'm feeling all right, nothing's wrong."

After an electrocardiograph machine indicated something was wrong, doctors conducted tests and discovered that two out of his three main coronary arteries were completely blocked, with the third 90 percent blocked. Of course, that means he was at risk of suffering a potentially fatal heart attack.

D'Aquino said he had visited a cardiologist before, who had prescribed him daily medication for diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, but there was never any indication that there were any deeper issues.

After the doctors shared the test results with him, D'Aquino quickly agreed to have an angioplasty, a procedure to restore blood flow to the heart by implanting tiny stents in clogged or blocked arteries. He was sent home the following day and said "it went well and I'm feeling much, much better."

"Having a new lease of life is a good thing," he said. "You wake up the next morning and you look around you, everything looks more beautiful. It's a great feeling; you're on a high for a few days. That feeling is something special."

As a self-professed Apple fan, D'Aquino sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook in early April. In recounting his story, he noted that "this was the first time that my watch alert had ever gone off, but I was not feeling anything, no dizziness or pain" and added that "in short, I was a walking time bomb."

"Please continue promoting the use of the Apple Watch for anyone with cardiac problems. I lost a cousin two weeks ago to a massive heart attack, and if he had an Apple Watch, he might have had the same opportunity I got - to live."

Cook said he was "so glad" to hear that D'Aquino is doing well now. "I appreciate you taking the time to share your story. It inspires us to keep pushing."

D'Aquino's situation might have been different had it not been for the Apple Watch's ability to detect an elevated heart rate, introduced in watchOS 4. When enabled, the feature notifies the wearer if their heart rate remains above a chosen beats per minute while they appear to have been inactive for a period of 10 minutes.

On all Apple Watch Series 1 or newer models, users can turn on heart rate notifications when they first open the Heart Rate app, or at any time later:Open the Apple Watch app on a paired iPhone.
Tap the My Watch tab, then tap Heart Rate.
Tap Elevated Heart Rate, then choose a BPM.If you have any family, friends, or know of anyone else with an Apple Watch, remind them to enable this potentially life saving feature. For people like D'Aquino and Deanna Recktenwald, it has given them a new lease on life.

Article Link: 76-Year-Old Gaston D'Aquino Latest to Say Apple Watch Saved His Life

[doublepost=1526185531][/doublepost]It’s unfortunate when non-medical folks get involved in interpreting a medical situation and making conclusions on the accuracy/validity of a story. This story could have benefited from some medical expertise.

An elevated heart rate can be due to a variety of factors. When a person gets scared, drinks coffee, works out, etc - that is sinus tachycardia. It’s a normal regular increase in heart rate in response to a physiologic demand on the heart. On the contratry, my guess is that this person actually had an arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation which also causes tachycardia, but it irregular and abrupt/non-situational.

Most importantly, this individuals 3 vessel coronary disease is an entirely distinct condition which would NOT be related the the arrhythmia he was having. Frankly it was probably just random luck that he went to the physician and they started checking random markers/tests. It’s akin to someone having a cold and their doctor incidentally diagnosing them for colon cancer while they are there. True true and unrelated.

 

[ErikGrim]

As a medical doctor I am really very, very disappointed by apple to act this way just to sell more apple watches.

You must be fun at parties.

 

[citysnaps]

There seems be a lot of cardiologists weighing in here. Who would have thought...