How Data Saved My Life

Last week, I was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot from somewhere in my body (likely my leg), traveled through my venous system, through my heart, and found its way into my lungs. Thankfully, it broke into several pieces along the way; otherwise, the results would have been catastrophic. 

All this happened imperceptibly, except for a few minor symptoms. There was no intense pain or other red flags that told me something was wrong. Had I waited for treatment, the eight clots in my lungs could have continued to grow, or more clots could have formed. Either outcome could have been disastrous.

What did cause me to go to the hospital was an insight derived from data

The first pieces of data were my symptoms. I had a slight pain in my chest for a couple of days – not a big deal; I surmised it as the results of a good upper-body workout. The second symptom, a leg ache – again not a big deal, I run quite a bit, so I figured it was just soreness from a new route with more hills. The last symptom was abnormal exertion from activity (i.e., shortness of breath) – this was the hardest to explain, but it was minor and could have resulted from dehydration or a cold. 

All the symptoms led me to believe I was having an off week. However, because I previously suffered a pulmonary embolism in 2015, I had a hypothesis that the symptoms could mean something more serious. I decided to dig deeper into the data collected by my Apple Watch. As a runner, I track my runs and recovery to monitor my improvement. I also wear my watch most of the time, so there was a good amount of data to review. 

What I saw in the data shocked me into going to the ER

First, my resting heart rate, while generally in the 50s, suddenly jumped to close to 80 (an increase of 40%)! 

Second, I had data on two recent runs – the first a six-mile run on Sunday, which was a little slow, but showed a healthy post-workout recovery. The second, a failed run on Wednesday (I was only able to run a mile due to fatigue) showed an abnormal recovery, where my heart rate actually increased!

Contextualizing my heart rate data with my symptoms led me to believe my hypothesis while frightening, might be valid.  After a short conversation with my wife, we decided to go to the ER just to be safe. Once at the ER, after asking me a few questions and getting my vitals, the staff rushed me off to radiology, where I received a CT scan.

The results from radiology confirmed my hypothesis – I had suffered another pulmonary embolism

From there, I spent a few days in the hospital where I started anticoagulation therapy (blood thinners). They also examined my heart with an echocardiogram and monitored me for any deterioration. Thankfully, I didn’t suffer any heart damage or additional clots. Notwithstanding a temporary decrease in lung function, I should make a full recovery. With any luck, I’ll be back running again in a few weeks.

I decided to share my story because it reinforced a couple of lessons that I thought worth sharing:

• Always listen to your body – if you think something is up, don’t take any chances, life is too precious
• Data is incredibly powerful – when analyzed, it can yield life-changing, or in my case, life-saving results

I know my situation is unique, but we live in an era with unprecedented access to data. We only need to know how to use it and ask the right questions.

Jeremy Hemsworth is a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft. He is a military veteran and former award-winning seller. He currently builds products and programs that enable sellers to drive business growth and profitability in a cloud-first world.