Peter Moore, a Montecito, California resident, believes he owes his life to his Apple Watch. The former tech executive was on his way to the airport to pick up his daughter when he felt unusually lightheaded and faint. Initially dismissing the symptoms, he decided to grab a coffee at Starbucks, thinking it would help. However, his Apple Watch had a different plan.
Moore received a notification alerting him to a low heart rate, an unexpected warning that prompted him to check his watch. To his shock, his heart rate had dropped to 32 beats per minute. Concerned, he called his wife, who immediately advised him not to move and rushed him to the hospital.
Upon arrival, doctors quickly assessed his condition. “The doctor kind of theatrically ran in and said, ‘This is not good. This is not good. You need a pacemaker right now,'” Moore recalled. He was immediately treated by Omid Yousefian, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Sansum Clinic Cardiology. Yousefian confirmed that the Apple Watch played a crucial role in alerting Moore to his dangerous condition, leading to timely medical intervention.
Yousefian explained that wearables like the Apple Watch can detect abnormal heart rates and conditions like heart block, where electrical signals in the heart are disrupted. However, he cautioned that these devices cannot detect heart attacks. “For us physicians, symptoms are the most important thing. Moore was notified by his watch that his heart rate was slow and he correlated that with his symptoms. So he didn’t wait. He made a very smart move,” Yousefian said.
Moore had a pacemaker implanted to regulate his heartbeat just hours after arriving at the hospital. Reflecting on the experience, he expressed gratitude for the technology that potentially saved his life. “I feel great,” he said, adding that he won’t be taking off his Apple Watch anytime soon. Moore emphasized the value of wearables, not just for daily convenience but for providing real-time health information. In his case, the Apple Watch’s timely alert may have been life-saving.
