A Kansas woman whose Apple Watch started beeping when it detected her rapid heartbeat says she won't be taking the smart watch off _ it may have saved her life.
Heather Hendershot, of Scranton, told the Topeka Capital-Journal that her new Apple Watch began beeping while she was watching TV at about 9 p.m. on a Saturday last month. Scranton is in Osage County south of Topeka.
Her heart was beating at about 120 beats per minute, the newspaper reported, which is above normal for a resting adult. The American Heart Association considers a normal, resting heart rate between 60-100 beats per minute.
Hendershot's watch alerted her of a rapid heartbeat every 10 minutes, she told the Topeka Capital-Journal, and her heartbeat reached as high as 160 beats per minute.
"It vibrated and then it beeped at me and told me that my resting heart rate was too high," she told WIBW. "So, I checked it myself and it was correct."
She didn't feel any symptoms of high blood pressure, though, so she went to bed assuming it was just a bug, WIWB reported.
But her husband is a "worry wart," Hendershot told the Capital-Journal, so she went to an urgent care clinic the next day.
An urgent care doctor then sent her to the emergency room, according to KSNF.
It was at Stormont Vail Health's emergency room where nurses dubbed Hendershot "The Apple Watch Patient."
"They did some lab work, gave me some IV fluid and then with the lab work they noticed my thyroid was out of whack," she told KSNF.
She was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe hyperthyroidism. The condition occurs when the thyroid gland is overactive and produces too much thyroid hormone, according to the American Thyroid Association.
Symptoms usually include nervousness, irritability, increased sweating, heart racing, hand tremors, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, thinning skin, fine brittle hair and muscle weakness, according to the Association.
Hendershot told the Capital-Journal that she had none of those symptoms, besides the beeping Apple Watch.
The endocrinologist who treated Hendershot told the newspaper that he was "startled and surprised" to hear she didn't have any other symptoms.
"I've been doing this 25 years and it's the first time ever I've heard someone tell me they didn't notice anything and were later diagnosed with severe hyperthyroidism," endocrinologist Alan Wynne told the Capital-Journal.
It was also the first time a smart watch detected his patient's symptoms, according to the newspaper.
If left untreated, hyperthyroidism could lead to a life-threatening thyroid storm, according to Healthline.
" ... the watch kind of saved her life when you find that out," her husband, Cody Hendershot, told KSNF.
Because of that, Hendershot told KSNF she will not be taking her smart watch off.
"If I hadn't been wearing it, I wouldn't have known anything was wrong," she told the Capital-Journal.
