Amanda Faulkner’s life was saved by her Apple Watch after it alerted her to unusual health signs in January.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, Faulkner explained that she initially thought she was just experiencing mild anemia. But her Apple Watch, which she had recently upgraded to a Series 10 after using her husband Mike’s old model for years, told a different story.
The Vitals app on her watch began sending alerts about her resting heart rate, which typically hovered around 55 beats per minute but had risen into the 90s. The alerts continued each morning, with the app reporting unusual readings. Concerned, Faulkner visited her GP and shared the data and graphs from her watch, showing a clear trend.
“Hand on heart, if it wasn’t for my smartwatch constantly nagging me, I wouldn’t have even noticed something was wrong,” Faulkner said.
Her GP acted quickly, referring her to the emergency department in Hastings for further tests. Within four hours, Faulkner was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a rare form of blood cancer.
Doctors told her that had she delayed seeking medical attention, she could have died from the untreated cancer and its complications within just days.
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