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

[JadawinUK]

I have an original Apple Watch and can't use the feature, my life is not as valuable to apple

Well, get a FitBit then. It's not like Apple invented that feature (as usual):
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...nusual-73-year-old-harwinton-us-a7670696.html

 

[Lerxt]

[doublepost=1526190737][/doublepost]

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...

You pay to go to hospital??

 

[IJ Reilly]

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

I would not try it, but in my case I am talking about a Series 0, now over three years old. You would be lucky to manage it with a newer Apple Watch, I'd imagine. A very small power bank would charge it a couple of times though, and if I was hiking for several days I'd carry a solar charger to keep my phone alive. But that's just me.

 

[Bigsk8r]

Please don’t pretend to speak for everyone else. If you think this feature is good for you then great. Personally I couldn’t give a **** about this feature.

Dude, chill. Just because I said "we should" didn't imply that I believed we "all would".

Your snarky way of weighing in is just a testament to the temperament and (lack of) maturity residing behind your keyboard.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

You must be fun at parties.

The difference between you and me:
I passed most of my Professional life in Operation theatres and Intensiv care Units( I directed them)in Cardiac Surgery of University hospitals and Heart centers.

Another difference: I know what I am talking about. You do not at all.



This guy is absolutely right, because he knows also what he is talking about:

Absolutely wrong. Not everybody can feel an elevated heart rate. Atrial fibrillation is a perfect example, some people feel when they slip into it, others can’t tell when their atria are fibrillating and they have a ventricular response of 140’s. The latter people are the ones who develop clots in their atria that embolize and cause strokes. Apple Watch can be very useful there.

This story, however, reads like the Apple Watch picked up his coronary artery disease. In fact, it was just fortunate his doctor did an EKG where ischemic changes were picked-up. The elevated heart rate may or may not have had anything to do with his heart disease, but it did get the guy to see his doctor.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Take home points from this thread, for me;

1) Lends further credence to my view that Apple Watch saves lives and helps motivate people to improve their health.
2) Proves my view that the world is full of of some really very weird people.
[doublepost=1526198753][/doublepost]

Like, love, hate, or loathe Apple, we should all agree that this is an example of what we want technology to be able to do for us.

“Should” being the notable choice of word here

This is the internet, a place where even life saving features are a gimmick unless they save your own. Lol.

 

[aleni]

Some of my friends died of heart attack in their sleep. My advice is don’t charge your apple watch at night. Use it when you sleep. Charge it at the office where you have people around you.

 

[elmughrabi]

Can we please stop sharing stories about how watches saving people !
just bring back the "I am Mac, I am PC" ad and do something

 

[barmann]

[doublepost=1526190737][/doublepost]
You pay to go to hospital??

It's an American thing .

 

[glowplug]

I hope the LTE version can be used on MVNOs soon or, even better, with its own number.

I hope Apple launches their own MVNO soon.

 

[inscrewtable]

Apple should insist that the specialists pay Apple a standard 30% commission on all Apple watch referrals.

 

[DragonSky]

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...

You should move to a decent country where it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg to get potentially life saving medical attention. I'm not sure that it's apples fault that your medical treatment costs so much. Maybe you should talk to your government about being more socially responsible.

 

[NoNothing]

It's an American thing .

They pay in other parts of he world. Just in a differing way.

 

[I7guy]

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...

The watch isn’t intended to diagnose. It doesn’t know the difference between afib or anxiety attacks (of which I went through for many years).

People who suffer anxiety attacks have to get treatment anyway. The Apple Watch inly is showing one thing....elevated heart rate.

 

[69650]

How many people have died because their Samsung Gear or Fitbit watches didn’t detect an elevated heart rate?

They’re not medical devices, either.

I agree, non of them are medical devices. My point is exactly that. Nobody should ever use an Apple Watch to detect heart problems. By promoting this case, some people will think they can rely on their Apple Watch to detect problems rather than going for regular checkups at the doctors. The end result is that people will die because they place a misguided trust in their smartwatch.

 

[Rogifan]

I agree, non of them are medical devices. My point is exactly that. Nobody should ever use an Apple Watch to detect heart problems. By promoting this case, some people will think they can rely on their Apple Watch to detect problems rather than going for regular checkups at the doctors. The end result is that people will die because they place a misguided trust in their smartwatch.

So basically you’re saying anyone who doesn’t get a regular checkup by a doctor is going to die.

 

[I7guy]

I agree, non of them are medical devices. My point is exactly that. Nobody should ever use an Apple Watch to detect heart problems. By promoting this case, some people will think they can rely on their Apple Watch to detect problems rather than going for regular checkups at the doctors. The end result is that people will die because they place a misguided trust in their smartwatch.

How is what the Apple Watch does any different than taking your own pulse? Hint: it’s not.

 

[mgauss7]

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

I don't like this marketing strategy. First of all, a dedicated cardiac band like a pedometer band can be made for much less than an Apple Watch, much less. Does not have to be made for profit. And really a visit to your doctor can predict a lot and avoid emergencies. And detect many conditions before damage is done.

Also Apple is not a medical octogenarian company. Few Gaston types at the Apple Store. When I go to the Apple store the youth is rampant. Apple is for young people. Apple attracts the young, and it makes information and technology cool. It helps women appreciate and enter engineering. Its about time women get more than 1% of the Nobel Awards in hard sciences. And I see women as interested in iPhones as the men. Going back decades, men were the RadioShack/phone dwellers, they'd not be any women at RadioShacks.

Apple and Samsung etc. let the young speak their true mind and see the ugly politicians, both the insensitive right and the manipulative left.

Apple is barking up the wrong tree "saving lives." Apple probably should spent real money making sure people don't get run over playing their headsets on the street, unable to hear an incoming self driving Uber car. Or obsessing with OCD on the devices all the time. Or watching porn. Or texting and driving. Would save millions of lives.

 

[travelsheep]

High carb plant based diet, problem fixed. Instead, now we have just another carnist walking.

 

[mgauss7]

I am hoping you found out the cause.

Reasons for elevated are: nocturnal emissions, apnea, and other sleeping disorders (There are over 100). Or yes, a rhythm problem. Or diabetes. I don't like medical devices.

 

[chucker23n1]

They pay in other parts of he world. Just in a differing way.

We do not. We don't pay for hospital visits; we pay for a healthier society.

 

[I7guy]

I don't like this marketing strategy. First of all, a dedicated cardiac band like a pedometer band can be made for much less than an Apple Watch, much less. Does not have to be made for profit. And really a visit to your doctor can predict a lot and avoid emergencies. And detect many conditions before damage is done.

Also Apple is not a medical octogenarian company. Few Gaston types at the Apple Store. When I go to the Apple store the youth is rampant. Apple is for young people. Apple attracts the young, and it makes information and technology cool. It helps women appreciate and enter engineering. Its about time women get more than 1% of the Nobel Awards in hard sciences. And I see women as interested in iPhones as the men. Going back decades, men were the RadioShack/phone dwellers, they'd not be any women at RadioShacks.

Apple and Samsung etc. let the young speak their true mind and see the ugly politicians, both the insensitive right and the manipulative left.

Apple is barking up the wrong tree "saving lives." Apple probably should spent real money making sure people don't get run over playing their headsets on the street, unable to hear an incoming self driving Uber car. Or obsessing with OCD on the devices all the time. Or watching porn. Or texting and driving. Would save millions of lives.

Old farts like me go shopping at Apple.com and don’t need to go to the store. Apple doesn’t need to spend “real money” idiot proofing their products from idiots. They should spend money doing what they do best. Innovate.

 

[bbednarz]

The difference between you and me:
I passed most of my Professional life in Operation theatres and Intensiv care Units( I directed them)in Cardiac Surgery of University hospitals and Heart centers.

Another difference: I know what I am talking about. You do not at all.



This guy is absolutely right, because he knows also what he is talking about:

Your mother must be so proud. The guy you quote is essentially saying what most here are saying. The watch didn't detect the exact issue but it is what got him to go to the doctor when he otherwise wouldn't have. They caught the issue at that point. Your fancy medical degree didn't come with any common sense.

 

[mi7chy]

Well, get a FitBit then. It's not like Apple invented that feature (as usual):
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...nusual-73-year-old-harwinton-us-a7670696.html

Or, the reliable two finger method which is free. No need to waste money on a non-FDA approved placebo with questionable accuracy.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifes...t-detecting-irregular-heart-rates-459908.html

"It's not rocket science, but it could save your life. Placing two fingers of one hand on the
upturned wrist of the other twice a day to check your pulse could save you from stroke, heart failure, or even dementia."

 

[bbednarz]

Or, the reliable two finger method which is free. No need to waste money on a non-FDA approved placebo with questionable accuracy.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifes...t-detecting-irregular-heart-rates-459908.html

"It's not rocket science, but it could save your life. Placing two fingers of one hand on the
upturned wrist of the other twice a day to check your pulse could save you from stroke, heart failure, or even dementia."

Or the watch which checks every 5-10 minutes.... Ya know, a lot more often than remembering to do it twice a day. I cannot believe people are turning this story into a negative...