Apple Watch catches teen athlete's heart rate at 190 bpm, saves his life in time

An Oklahoma teen athlete, Skylar Joslin, has credited his Apple Watch for saving his life after the device notified him of his abnormally rapid heart rate. The boy received an alert on his two-week-old Apple Watch stating he had a high heart rate of 190 beats per minute (bpm), despite being seated in class. He immediately texted a screenshot of the alert to his mother, Liz Joslin, AppleInsider reported.

"I got a text message along with a screenshot of his heart rate that was 190, the following message saying, mommy, there is something wrong. I am not doing anything," Liz said. She rushed her son to the hospital as his heart rate continued to climb even further and went as high as 280 bpm.

The teen was later diagnosed with a condition called Supraventricular Tachycardia, or SVT, which causes a rapid heartbeat that weakens the heart over time. He had to undergo eight-hour heart surgery in order to fix his rhythm and will be the face of the Oklahoma American Heart Association Heart Walk on April 25.

"If I wouldn't have gotten his Apple Watch, I don't know that I would've ever known," Liz noted. "I mean it's unknown how long it would've been going on or how long it would've really taken."

There have been several examples where the Apple Watch saved lives. A US doctor recently saved a person's life by using the Apple Watch Series 4 on his wrist to detect atrial fibrillation at a restaurant.

Another Apple Watch user in the UK was recently alerted about his low heart rate by the device. It revealed a serious heart condition that ultimately resulted in a surgery to fix the problem. The Apple Watch Series 4 and Apple Watch Series 5 are both capable of taking an electrocardiogram and also monitors your heartbeat in the background, which helps detect an irregular heartbeat.