An elderly woman’s life was saved thanks to Apple Watch‘s fall detection feature. Raylene Hackenwerth, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, recently fell so hard that she almost lost consciousness. Fortunately, her Apple Watch automatically called the 911 emergency hotline.
One of the paramedics said the distress call from the Apple Watch was unique, WFTS reported. The Apple Watch sends its geographic location when calling 911, giving paramedics a place to go.
After Hackenwerth was taken to hospital, a lump was found in her lung. It is cancer and she is now awaiting treatment. Hackenwerth told WFTS: “If it wasn’t for the fall and the Apple Watch calling them, I wouldn’t even know this thing was there, maybe by the time I found out in the future, it would have been too late.”
The Apple Watch was a gift from her son for Christmas so she could track her workouts. They didn’t know there was a fall detection feature that was enabled by default if the user was 55 or older. Fall detection has been credited with saving lives many times, sometimes more than once.
Other times, heart rate sensors warn the wearer of potential health problems due to a heart rate that is too high or too low, leading to life-saving medical intervention.