An Apple Watch is once again being praised for saving a life, this time by helping a man who collapsed from severe breathing problems. A Reddit user named Taylor shared how the device’s fall detection and emergency features helped him get lifesaving medical help in time.
Taylor, who thought he had a lingering cold or possibly mild COVID symptoms, experienced a sudden and dangerous turn in his condition. “Mostly shortness of breath,” he wrote. But one evening after work, things quickly got worse. While walking through a nearly empty parking lot, he felt dizzy and lightheaded. He collapsed face-first onto the pavement.
At that moment, his Apple Watch detected the fall and automatically triggered its Emergency SOS feature. The device vibrated, flashed an alert, and started contacting emergency services. In his confused state, Taylor accidentally stopped the call. “Don’t be like me,” he wrote, warning others. Luckily, the emergency call had already gone through, and 911 quickly called him back.
He managed to answer and explain what had happened. Paramedics rushed to the scene and brought him to the emergency room. There, doctors discovered he had several blood clots in his lungs, one of which was blocking oxygen from reaching his heart. “The ER doc told me later that if help hadn’t gotten to me so quickly, I had about a 50/50 chance of not making it,” he said.
The Apple Watch’s health features have grown in recent years to include heart rate monitoring, emergency SOS, fall detection, and more. Fall detection uses advanced motion sensors, such as the accelerometer and gyroscope, to detect when someone has taken a hard fall. If the wearer doesn’t move for about a minute, the watch automatically contacts emergency services and shares the user’s location.
In Taylor’s case, the system also alerted his wife, who was 35 miles away. She had been listed as an emergency contact in the Health app and received a message with his exact location. “She knew something was wrong and knew exactly where I was,” Taylor wrote.
This incident adds to a growing number of stories showing how wearable technology, especially the Apple Watch, is becoming more than just a fitness tracker—it’s a potentially life-saving tool.
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