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Apple Watch saves the life of Florida teen with a life-threatening disease

Published May 1st, 2018 9:01PM EDT
Apple Watch Saves Life

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The more people buy Apple Watches, the more stories we’ll hear about how the wearable device did something that saved someone’s life.

The latest such account comes from Florida, where an Apple Watch alerted an 18-year-old that her resting heart rate was at 190 beats per minute and that she should seek immediate help.

It turns out that Deanna Recktenwald suffers from chronic kidney disease, a condition that went undiscovered all these years. The disease did not show any other symptoms. It was the Watch’s heart rate monitoring features that alerted Recktenwald and her family that something is wrong.

“I didn’t know what was going on at all and it was just out of the blue,” she told WFTS.

“It was alarming that the watch was telling us to seek medical attention,” her mother, Stacey, added. “I didn’t even know that it had the capability of giving us that alert.”

Stacey, a registered nurse, took her daughter to a walk-in clinic where the Watch’s findings were further confirmed. Deanna was then sent to the emergency room for further testing, with doctors confirming her final diagnosis.

Her kidneys are apparently functioning at only 20% and she might need a renal transplant in the future. However, her condition can be monitored now that she’s aware of it.

The teen received the Apple Watch as a Christmas gift. Her mother wrote a letter to Apple to thank the company for saving her daughter’s life — here’s that letter:

Image source: WFTS

Apple CEO Tim Cook responded saying that he’s glad Deanna is fine now and that such stories inspire the company to keep pushing:

Image source: WFTS
Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.