Is the EKG a must?

[Glene]

It definitely is if you’re over 55. A quick story… Three weeks ago I was sitting on my couch watching TV and my Apple 5 watch went off with an afib alert. I’m 69, I’ve never had a problem with my heart in my life, I in good shape, not overweight, and ran marathons 15 years ago and still run today. I thought it was a fluke. I waited a day and then read that afib causes stroke more than it does heart attack, so I went to the ER. Sure enough, I had a strong case of afib with a heart rate would not come down less than 105… Two days later they did an electrical stimulation to put the heart back in normal rhythm and I’ve been fine ever since. The real key is I had absolutely no symptoms at all, had no idea that I was in a fib. It’s my opinion that the watch saved me.

 

[crzdcolombian]

That is awesome. My Apple Watch 4 has it but at 30.... not really needed. Going to give my dad my watch because of that. He already had a heart attack. It's more someone his age who isn't that tech savvy. I just don't know if he is going to charge it every night

 

[Glene]

The thing that surprised me the most is how much the trainEd specialistS in the hospital did not know , or had not seen the watch before. This is holy Cross Hospital which is the largest in Fort Lauderdale and the docs are top notch. As a matter fact after a day or two, the nurses would refer to me as “the watch guy” , at one point I had five or six docvs and nurses standing around my bed listening to my story… My cardiologist was blown away when I showed him that after I did an EKG manually, I could PDF to his email the entire report… Amazing…

 

[crzdcolombian]

My thing is the new upgrade has the child mode. If I can keep track of this for him then he is defiantly getting it. I just don't know if he would know enough or go to the hospital if his watch told him something like that. If I get the notification I'd take him

 

[Glene]

Maybe take a picture of what the watch face looks like when it gets an a fib warning And put it on his fridge?I’m sure it’s somewhere online, and call you immediately if the child mode doesn’t work. The watch also gives you a very bong sound and hapic tap when you get the alert.

 

[Glene]

Here’s another story that happened to me last year about the fall down protection. I took my watch off to take a shower and set it on the counter. It hit the counter I guess too hard, I didn’t notice and jumped in the shower. When you get a fall down protection you automatically get a few warnings before it will call the EMTs, but I was in the shower and didn’t hear any of them… 20 minutes later the EMTs bang on my door and I had to tell them was a false alarm and they presented me with a bill for 80 bucks… LOL