Every day, 83-year-old William Fryer takes a walk along the Ohio River near his home in Cincinnati. A few weeks ago, while on one of those walks, he noticed his legs felt a little wobbly and then he collapsed. His recollection of what happened after that is a little foggy, but he does know that his Apple Watch detected the fall and automatically alerted emergency services and his family.
An off-duty Cincinnati police officer was first on the scene, and paramedics arrived shortly after, but couldn't determine why Fryer fell. They offered to take him home or to the hospital, and he chose the latter. At Christ Hospital, Vascular and Interventional Radiologist Dr. Scott Tatum discovered a large blood clot in Fryer's chest. Tatum noted that Fryer didn’t have the normal symptoms associated with the condition, but fortunately, he had a year's worth of health data tracked in an app on his phone to help the doctor with the diagnosis.
The following day, the doctor removed the foot-long blood clot, diagnosing it as a high-risk pulmonary embolism. Had the embolism not been discovered, Fryer would have had around a 50/50 chance of dying. The octogenarian is thankful to be alive and that he was wearing his Apple Watch that day. He’s now back to taking his daily walks along the river. “I’m up walking every day if it’s nice,” he says. “This is the easiest thing I can do to get some exercise.”
Source: WCPO