New Delhi:

An Apple watch has saved the life of a 35-year-old woman from Delhi. The woman suffered from Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) – a rapid and abnormal heart rhythm.

Speaking to news agency IANS, Sneha Saha, a policy researcher, said that late in the evening on April 9, she started experiencing a rapid heart rate.

She assumed it to be a panic attack due to stress. She started doing deep breathing exercises and drinking water, but had no respite as the problem persisted.

When the heart palpitations didn’t stop, she wore her Apple watch, to assess her condition. The watch advised her to visit a doctor.

She chose to ignore that too, but around midnight, the Apple watch alerted Sneha to visit a doctor immediately due to extremely high heart rate (230 bpm) and onset of AFib.

Sneha, who lives in Munirka, was then rushed to the Emergency at the nearby Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, where doctors could not read her pulse.

Assessing her condition further, they had to administer three delivery of direct current (DC) shocks (50 50 100 joules) to revive her heart’s sinus rhythm. Subsequently, she was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

“Had the Apple Watch not alerted me of the serious condition around midnight, I would not have gone to the hospital and would have lost my life,” Sneha told IANS, noting that the watch has now become her “constant companion.”

“I would not have measured my heart rate, had the watch not been there. Whatever I had to say to the doctors was based on Apple Watch readings,” added Sneha, who is on her way to recovery.

The doctors diagnosed her condition to be a type of Tachycardia — an increased heart rate for any reason — which can get triggered by exercise or stress.

After returning home, she wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on April 23, thanking him and the Apple team “for making such an advanced and precise recording ECG app.”

Within a few hours, he responded: “I am glad you sought the medical attention and treatment you needed. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us.”

“After the harrowing experience, I realised it is very important for us to understand our health, our sleep patterns, our heart rates as we all deal with stress,” Sneha said.

“Smartwatches are a very good way of keeping track of your daily activities, your heart rate,” added the Ph.D. degree holder in Science Policy Studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Apple’s first-generation Apple Watch is no longer available for repair or upgrade as the company declared the product as “obsolete”. This includes the premium 18-karat gold version, which adheres to Apple’s seven-year warranty policy. The watch was released in 2015 with a price range of $10,000 to $17,000 and was only available for one year before Apple replaced it with less luxurious watch variations, as per a report in The Verge.

The obsolete tag not only means the end of software updates but also the end of hardware support. The company will no longer provide parts, repairs or replacement services for the watch at Apple Stores and Apple Authorised Service Provider locations. It is to be noted that the original Apple Watch, referred to as Series 0, was never updated beyond watchOS 4.3.2 in 2018.

As per Apple’s website, when a product has been out of production for more than seven years, the company considers it to be technologically outdated. The first-generation devices just surpassed that seven-year milestone since the original Apple Watch was discontinued in September 2016 in favour of the Series 2 and Series 1 versions.

The solid-gold Apple Watch Edition was a pet project for Jony Ive, who served as Apple’s previous head designer. Celebrities were spotted wearing it when it first debuted, including German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and singer Beyonce, who paired it with a gold link bracelet that was never made available to the general public.

Not only this, all other Hermes-branded 38mm and 42mm aluminium and stainless steel models of the original Apple Watch are also regarded as outdated. The ceramic Apple Watch Edition, which could be purchased for up to $1,299, was later replaced by the solid-gold Apple Watch in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 were launched on September 12 at the company’s Wonderlust event. The wearable smartwatches come with considerable upgrades over their preceding models. The Apple Watch Series 9 is offered in Midnight, Pink, (Product) Red, Starlight, and Silver colour options and is priced at Rs. 41,900 whereas the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is priced at Rs. 89,900. It comes with Alpine Loop, Trail Loop, and Ocean band options.