Teenage girl reveals how Apple Watch saved her life
Deanna Recktenwald was sitting in church on a Sunday when she received a terrifying warning.
The 18-year-old woman from Florida looked down at her Apple Watch and saw her heart was beating at 160 per minute, dangerously higher than the normal rate of 60 to 100 beats.
Her mother rushed her to hospital and Ms Recktenwald discovered she had kidney failure.
She told ABC News in the US she had slight symptoms, like breathlessness when she was sitting, standing and walking, but never did she expect her diagnosis.
While Ms Recktenwald was waiting to see a doctor, her heart rate continued to increase.
“It was scary because she was just sitting there. She wasn’t doing anything. It wasn’t like she was running around. She was just standing there and it spiked up to 190,” her mother Stacey Recktenwald said.
The ABC reports her mother then wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook about the lifesaving device.
“I am forever grateful to Apple for developing such an amazing lifesaving product,” she wrote.
“If it wasn’t for her Apple watch alarming her about her HR we wouldn’t have discovered her kidney issue. I honestly feel that your Apple Watch has saved my daughter’s life.”
Mr Cook later tweeted: “Stories like Deanna’s inspire us to dream bigger and push harder every day.”
Ms Recktenwald’s mother told the ABC her daughter was now dependent on her watch and would not sleep without it.
