An American woman’s smartwatch helped doctors save the 67-year-old’s life.
Solon (USA) – Kim Durkee of Maine won’t be taking off her Apple Watch anytime soon. The 67-year-old is sure: her watch saved her life!
Kim Durkee (67) suffered from a heart tumor unnoticed. © Screenshot Facebook/Kim Durkee
The smartwatch has been his constant companion for two years. In fact, he got the device to count his steps so he could call for help if he fell.
But this 67-year-old woman would never have imagined what the watch would do for her. “I didn’t have a single clue that something was wrong with my body, not a single one,” Kim recalls out loud. This day.
This was to change abruptly one night last May: Kim was suddenly woken up by her Apple Watch. The device told him that she seemed to have an irregular heartbeat that suggested atrial fibrillation.
At first, Kim Durkee didn’t take the warning seriously, thinking the watch had simply displayed an error message. She herself did not feel a racing heart or any other health problems.
The American’s Apple Watch apparently saved her from a stroke. © 123RF/half a point
But the Apple Watch didn’t stop: Over the next three nights, the watch always woke Kim up five times. The reports always came in between midnight and four in the morning.
The American was slowly getting worried and finally went to the emergency room in early June. The doctor was certainly surprised when Kim explained that her smartwatch had sent her to the hospital.
“And he looked at me like, ‘Really, did your watch say you had atrial fibrillation?'” the 67-year-old recalls. Solon. “Everyone at the hospital was shocked. I was talking about clinic.”
A few tests later, the surprise: Kim’s watch was fine. In fact, something was wrong in the heart of the American. “Your watch on him is correct, he has AFib,” the treating physician explained, referring to the abbreviation for atrial fibrillation.
But that’s not all: Due to strange readings, doctors examined Kim even more intensively and finally discovered a tumor in the patient’s heart thanks to an echocardiogram. Although the myxoma was a benign growth in the left atrium of the heart, the tumor can still affect the organ in such a way that it can be life-threatening for those affected. In Kim’s case, the myxoma disrupted her normal heart rhythm and she had to Operational To be removed. He is currently recovering from open heart surgery.
One thing is for sure for her: “I 100 percent believe it saved my life,” Kim says of her smartwatch.
Doctors are also certain that without the clues from her watch, Kim would not have made it to the hospital on time and likely would have died of a massive stroke.
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