Apple Watch’s ECG Saves A Doctor From Critical Heart Disease

2020-07-10

Over the years ever since the Apple Watch was introduced, we’ve been hearing various stories of how the device has saved the lives of many of its users by alerting them to potential heart issues. This allowed the wearer to seek out medical treatment early, which as a result potentially saved many lives in the process.

Now it looks like the Apple Watch has saved yet another life, this time in the form of a Dr. Donald W Milne who shared a story of how his Apple Watch’s ECG feature helped him realize that something was wrong with his heart.

According to Milne who shared the story with 9to5Mac, “I was working out on an elliptical machine,  And I experienced more shortness of breath than usual for a workout.  I used the ECG function to take an ECG at that time. I observed ST segment depression on the tracing. That resolved and returned to normal with rest. This was again documented by the tracings. I had no history of any heart disease prior to this incident.”

He then visited a cardiologist at a hospital where he was given an angiogram where it was discovered that he had a critical coronary artery disease. While Milne isn’t exactly out of the woods yet and is scheduled to undergo surgery, he believes that by being alerted early on to this problem has allowed him to avoid a potentially fatal heart attack.