Here’s how a 12 YO girl was able to detect rare cancer early on because of her Apple Watch- Technology News, Firstpost

FP StaffOct 24, 2022 13:21:53 IST

The Apple Watch has been credited with being a lifesaver a number of times. Apart from stopping an occasional bullet, the Apple Watch has, on countless occasions made people wary of an underlying condition they might be suffering from, even when they showed so symptoms.

Apple Watch’s heart rate alerts have helped people get diagnosed for illnesses they had no idea they were suffering from. Image Credit: Apple

In a similar but new story, a 12-year-old girl was able to discover that she was suffering from a rare form of cancer and was able to get the right treatment for it before it was too late all thanks to the Apple Watch’s heart rate notifications.

Imani Miles, a 12-year-old girl who got a new Apple Watch recently,  suddenly started getting alerts about her abnormally high heart rates. First, Imani and her mother Jessica Kitchen assumed that the watch was just acting up because of a bug or an error in calibration. However, after updating the watch to the latest firmware and software, and after getting the watch recalibrated, the alerts did not stop.

Following the continuous alerts, Kitchen decided to take her daughter to the hospital. There, Imani had to have surgery to treat appendicitis. There, the doctors noticed a tumour in her appendix, which according to them, is “rarely seen in children.” After further examination, it was discovered that the cancer had already spread to other parts of Imani’s body. After that, Imani had to undergo surgery again to remove the cancerous mass.

Kitchen told a local news network reporting the case that she probably would have waited longer to get Imani to the hospital if it weren’t for the Apple Watch alerts. However, this long wait could have proven to be fatal for the girl. “If she didn’t have that watch, it could have been so much worse,” Kitchen said.

This is not the first time that Apple’s wearables have saved lives. In August, a 70-year-old man said his Apple Watch automatically called emergency services after he fainted and hit his head hard on the floor. In July, a woman’s heart was detected with a rare tumour after she received multiple alerts that her heart was in atrial fibrillation.

This is the reason why, Apple has started focusing on the life-saving capabilities of the Apple Watch, especially when they market their devices. This is also the reason why Apple, during the launch of the new iPhone 14 series, and the new Apple Watches focused so much on the different ways in which the new devices could turn out to be lifesavers.