Apple Watch saves Ken Counihan; detects life-threatening diseases

Sustained alerts by the Apple Watch got this Cleveland, Ohio resident to do a health check that revealed the presence of blood clots in the lungs

There are numerous incidents when the Apple watch has saved people's lives by alerting them in advance about potential health issues. Apple's multiple health-tracking capabilities help users to properly analyse their body functions, like heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring, ECG, etc. Such Apple watch features notify users about health concerns and prompt individuals to seek urgent medical assistance and save their lives.

In a recent report by News 5 Cleveland, Ken Counihan's Apple watch became a lifesaver for him than just showing time, playing music and taking calls.

While talking with Cleveland, Counihan shared his experience with the Apple watch. He said he is very active and regularly tracks his calories and other parameters. He charges his Apple watch at regular intervals and wears it during the day and even at night to keep track of his sleep.

Apple Watch saves Ken Counihan life

Last October, Counihan's Apple watch alerted him about elevated breathing.  

Many people wear an Apple watch to check texts and take calls, but for Ken Counihan, it became much more than that—it became a life-saver.

The watch has become a part of his daily routine, but this past October, the watch took on a bigger role.

"I got an alert back in October that my breathing was elevated. So you have a certain number of breaths per minute, basically said I went from 14 to 17 or 18," Counihan said. "My wife had me made a phone call to my son and he suggested I go to the outpatient care, and get it looked at, which is what I did. And they just did an X-ray. And they gave me some meds for bronchitis at the time."

Initially, he thought that the watch flagged him a minor illness, so he was about to go home and take some rest. But after some time, the Apple watch alerted him again, indicating that something was off.

"My blood oxygen—which is normally mid-90s, which is what is supposed to be, kind of 95 and up—started to get out to the mid-80s," Counihan said. "It was 10 o'clock at night. My wife was very concerned. My son was very concerned. I was like 'I just want to go to bed. I'm tired'…and they were both like 'No, you've got to get to the ER.'"

Thereafter he went for some scans and found blood clots in his lungs.

Blood clots could be life threatening

Dr Lucy Franjic, an emergency medical physician at Cleveland Clinic, told him that the blood clots are a truly serious condition, and Counihan could even lose his life due to that.

"Blood clots actually can become a life-threatening condition if they're not caught early enough," she said.

It was a second-life sort of thing for him. "What the doctor said as a follow-up was if I hadn't gone in, he said 60 per cent of the people that have this condition at that stage—if I went to bed, I may not have woken up the next morning," Counihan said.

He credited his Apple watch for saving his life.