How my Apple Watch potentially saved my life!!

Technology can do wonders, and I recently had the chance to see this in action. This is my story about how my apple watch alerted me to a potentially major heart problem, and how it was fixed. If you have a downer on tech, blaming it for the state of the world, negative press, fake news, monosyllabic teenagers (I think most of these at times), then this is the story for you!

A month or so ago, I woke up as normal and went to work. Whilst there, I commented that I felt agitated but didn't know why. Otherwise, it was a normal day.

When I got home, around 6 pm, I felt the energy drain out of me and had to lie down on the sofa. You know the kind of flu where you don't want to move...it felt like that.

This carried on for an hour or so and then my apple watch alerted me with the message below.

"Your heart has shown signs of an irregular rhythm suggesting Atrial Fibrillation. If you have not been diagnosed with AF by a physician, you should talk to your doctor" Apple Watch Message

Hmmm, that's a new message. So I looked it up and it looked kinda serious. Cue a typical man approach of saying 'it'll go away I'll wait an hour". But I didn't. My watch is now constantly alerting me and it's clear there's a problem so I call the UK NHS 111 service. The lady there did triage and suggested I go straight to A&E (The UK Emergency Room). So I did.

After an hour or so in the queue, I was taken into a room and connected to an ECG, and then things started to move much quicker!. I was moved into the Rescuss room and connected to a bigger ECG, they started with a Saline Drip and I was given tablets. At this point, my heart rate was around 160, dangerously high they said (my normal rate is around 60!).

An hour later (we're now at 2 am in the morning) and they tablets weren't working after 3 doses, so it's another saline drip and now a drip of something else to bring my heart rate down. Around 4 am things started to improve and I was monitored for another couple of hours before being placed on a ward, still connected up to an ECG. I had constant blood pressure and heart rate monitoring and drips, 15-minute monitoring by medical staff and doctors visits every hour or so.

Long story short, things came under control and I was allowed home that afternoon with medication to thin my blood (mwahahaha) and control the heart irregular beat. There was also another medication which the doctor described as a foot brake for the heart, which limited the increase in heart rate, meaning I had to take it easy (I'm always ok with that!). The heart didn't reset properly at first, but then did a week or so later. I then had the option for wait for it to happen again, or have an operation to fix it. As I travel a lot, I decided on the operation called a Catheter Ablation.

A month later, I'm having a heart op to fix the problem, all done via 3d imaging and a small hole in my groin. I walk into the theatre (which looked more like Nasa Mission Control) and 5 hours later walk out of the hospital fixed.

So technology identified the problem via my watch, then showed the medical teams what was wrong with the ECG monitors, and then finally was the route to fixing the issue with 3d imaging, and more tech than I could have imagined.

So when we malign tech (and believe me I shout at the TV when I can't get it to change channels or Alexa won't turn my lights on!), remember, as frustrating as it is, it's saving lives every day.

So thank you Apple, thank you to the medical providers, and especially thank you to the clinical and medical staff in the who diagnosed, supported, and fixed me.

Endnote: I'm doing fine now, no effects at all and really as good (or bad) as I was before.