It was a typical day for Sneha Sinha, a 35-year-old policy researcher based in Delhi. Like every day, she returns home from work in the evening. Suddenly, she started experiencing heart palpitations. She checked her Apple Watch 7 to monitor her heart rate, but the watch had run out of battery. Sinha waited a few minutes for the smartwatch to recharge. What happened next was terrifying and Sinha says if it wasn’t for her Apple Watch, she would have lost her life.
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“My Apple Watch consistently showed a high heart rate. Despite attempting to calm my heart rate with deep breathing, I continued to feel strong jugular pulsations in my neck and a rapid heart beat in the chest for a long time. However, after about 1.5 hours, the Watch’s ECG app detected Atrial Fibrillation and notified me that I should see a doctor immediately,” shares Sinha in a conversation with India Today Tech. “Only after the AFib alert, I contacted my friend to take me to the hospital. If not for the Apple Watch notification, I would have waited until morning to seek medical help, hoping that the palpitations would calm down sooner or later,” Sinha added. Sinha has been using an Apple Watch Series 7 since November 2022.
“In the emergency room, doctors observed that my heart rate exceeded 250 beats per minute, with an unrecordable blood pressure. They immediately administered oxygen, medication and attempted carotid sinus massage. Unfortunately, these measures did not succeed in stabilising my heart rate. Following that, they ultimately administered DC shocks to restore normal sinus rhythm of the heart. The doctors mentioned that I reached the hospital just in time,” says Sinha.
Sinha and her doctors heavily relied on the Apple Watch readings for her treatment. “That night in the emergency, my briefing about my heart rate was completely based on the data and notifications from my Apple Watch. The next morning, too, I provided information to the cardiologists based on the recorded data from the Watch, specifically highlighting the signs of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) detected by the device,” she says.
She also reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to thank him for developing the Apple Watch. “Its advanced heart monitoring features saved my life”, she said in the email. “It is not an exaggeration if I say that had the Apple Watch not detected the serious heart condition, I would have lost my life,” she added.
Sneha Sinha is a frequent traveller to high-altitude mountains and has undertaken some challenging treks, including the Zanskar Valley trek, Valley of Flowers trek, and Kheer Ganga trek. Additionally, she has visited high-altitude areas such as Tsomoriri, Ladakh, Hanle, Ladakh, Pangong Tso, Ladakh, Siachen base camp, Gurugdongmar, and North Sikkim. She has no history of illness either.
Sinha now wears her Apple Watch every night. “I usually wear it all day now. Looks like it will be my wearable gadget for years to come”.
