- A 16-year-old skier was able to get timely treatment thanks to an Apple Watch that detected low blood oxygen saturation in his body.
- the oxygen saturation level detected by her Apple Watch turned out to be almost accurate as the equipment there confirmed a 67 percent blood oxygen level.
Another life has been saved once again by the Apple Watch. Several reports have been published in the past about Apple’s popular wearable detecting abnormalities in users’ health with sensors that measure heart rate, ECG, and more. This time, A 16-year-old skier was able to get timely treatment thanks to an Apple Watch that detected low blood oxygen saturation in his body. The watch’s blood oxygen sensor can measure the oxygen level of the user’s blood while strapped on their wrist. However, Apple’s Blood Oxygen app is available on watchOS in only select countries.
In a CBS 8 report, Marcella Lee, an anchor on San Diego’s CBS 8 news channel, shared her frightening skiing experience in Colorado where her Apple Watch helped detect her son’s low blood oxygen level. According to Lee, her 16-year-old son told her that he felt unwell on Friday morning during their skiing trip. By night, she noticed his lips and fingertips looked blue. So, she put her Apple Watch on his wrist to measure his blood oxygen level and after a few seconds, the watch showed 66 percent blood oxygen saturation.
In her research, Lee discovered that a blood oxygen saturation of 88 percent or lower requires immediate medical attention, so she took her son to the ER. Surprisingly, the oxygen saturation level detected by her Apple Watch turned out to be almost accurate as the equipment there confirmed a 67 percent blood oxygen level. The doctors there said that with sustained oxygen of only 66 percent, her son could have gone into a coma. However, he was treated on time and is doing fine now.
According to Lee, her son suffered from High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE), a condition not common among skiers. Nearly, one in 10,000 skiers in Colorado get affected by HAPE, as per the report.
Earlier in October 2022, an Apple Watch reportedly helped detect cancer in a 12-year-old girl in the US by sensing her heart rate and helping her get treatment in time. Apple Watch reportedly kept warning the user’s mother of an abnormally high heart rate in her daughter. Upon being taken to a hospital for an appendectomy, the doctors found a neuroendocrine tumor on her appendix.
