A woman based in Delhi recently shared her remarkable story with Apple CEO Tim Cook, expressing how her Apple Watch played a pivotal role in saving her life. Sneha Sinha, a 35-year-old policy researcher, encountered a frightening health episode one evening when she started experiencing heart palpitations.
Though her Apple Watch Series 7 initially ran out of battery when she tried to monitor her heart rate, it detected Atrial Fibrillation (AF) upon recharging and promptly advised her to seek medical attention.
Grateful for the timely alert from her Apple Watch, Sneha Sinha rushed to the hospital, where doctors confirmed her dangerously elevated heart rate and administered urgent treatment, including DC shocks to restore normal sinus rhythm.
Reflecting on her ordeal, Sinha emphasized her Apple Watch’s crucial role in facilitating her treatment, providing vital data to her doctors.
“My Apple Watch consistently showed a high heart rate. Despite attempting to calm my heart rate with deep breathing, I continued to feel strong jugular pulsations in my neck and a rapid heart beat in the chest for a long time. However, after about 1.5 hours, the Watch’s ECG app detected Atrial Fibrillation and notified me that I should see a doctor immediately,” shares Sinha in a conversation with India Today Tech. “Only after the AFib alert, I contacted my friend to take me to the hospital. If not for the Apple Watch notification, I would have waited until morning to seek medical help, hoping that the palpitations would calm down sooner or later,”
Sinha added. She has been using an Apple Watch Series 7 since November 2022.
“In the emergency room, doctors observed that my heart rate exceeded 250 beats per minute, with an unrecordable blood pressure. They immediately administered oxygen, medication and attempted carotid sinus massage. Unfortunately, these measures did not succeed in stabilising my heart rate. Following that, they ultimately administered DC shocks to restore normal sinus rhythm of the heart. The doctors mentioned that I reached the hospital just in time,”
Sneha Sinha and her doctors heavily relied on the Apple Watch readings for her treatment.
“That night in the emergency, my briefing about my heart rate was completely based on the data and notifications from my Apple Watch. The next morning, too, I provided information to the cardiologists based on the recorded data from the Watch, specifically highlighting the signs of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) detected by the device,”
she says.
She also reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to thank him for developing the Apple Watch.
“Its advanced heart monitoring features saved my life”, she said in the email. “It is not an exaggeration if I say that had the Apple Watch not detected the serious heart condition, I would have lost my life,”
she added.
In her email to Tim Cook, Sinha expressed profound gratitude for the life-saving capabilities of the Apple Watch, stressing that without its advanced heart monitoring features, she might not have survived. As someone with a history of undertaking challenging treks and no prior health issues, Sinha now wears her Apple Watch regularly, recognizing it as an indispensable device for her ongoing well-being.
Apple CEO Tim Cook replied to her email.
Sneha Sinha frequently explores high-altitude mountain regions, embarking on challenging treks like the Zanskar Valley trek, Valley of Flowers trek, and Kheer Ganga trek. Her adventurous spirit has led her to visit various high-altitude areas, including Tsomoriri, Ladakh, Hanle, Pangong Tso, Siachen base camp, Gurugdongmar, and North Sikkim. Despite her extensive travels and rigorous adventures, she has maintained a clean bill of health.
Now, Sneha has integrated her Apple Watch into her daily routine, wearing it every night and throughout the day. She anticipates that it will become an indispensable part of her wearable technology collection for years to come.