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The Apple Watch Notification That Saved His Life
“This was so far out of left field,” he says. “I wasn’t feeling great, but I thought I was just a little tired.”
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Hutcherson realized that something may have been wrong with his heart after all, so he walked to the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and was admitted within a couple of minutes. He appreciated having the real-time data from his Apple Watch to show to the healthcare professionals. It ensured he would be seen immediately, and he was taken to get an EKG (a test that records heartbeat) quickly.
Atrial flutters are often caused by stress, caffeine and/or alcohol, his doctors said, but those don't tend to be big issues for him. Sometimes, as healthy as you are, heart issues just happen.
Needless to say—and to understate it—Hutcherson was both shocked and grateful. “If I didn’t have this on my wrist and the data wasn’t pushing this to me so consistently, I would’ve ignored it,” he says. “I would’ve just thought I was having an off day, I wasn’t feeling good, maybe I was having a little cold or whatever…I never thought it would be something so serious. And more than likely, it would’ve led to a stroke.”
Van Hutcherson always considered himself a fit, healthy guy.Van Hutcherson
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Hutcherson’s Recovery Journey With Doctors…and an Apple Watch
The doctors explained several treatment options to Hutcherson: cardioversion, cardiac ablation and medication. They opted for medication, and after a couple of days, Hutcherson was released home. But the medication didn’t work, and he ended up back in the emergency room. Pretty scary, right?Yes, but perhaps less scary with an Apple Watch on his wrist. “Through that whole time, the watch gave me a tremendous amount of comfort,” he says. “I could check my heart rate, I could check my EKG…You can email it through MyChart or whatever the physician uses; the nurse can read it and get a response back to you within minutes. It was very helpful.”About a month later, the doctors performed a cardiac ablation, which entails putting a wire through your groin and into your heart to short-circuit the area that’s misfiring. Hutcherson says the procedure brought back a quality of life he wouldn’t have had otherwise.Paying attention to and using all the features on his Apple Watch is a staple for him. “It’s like having a little wellness provider on your wrist,” Hutcherson says, “and it made a difference for me.”
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Sources
Van Hutcherson, a 60-year-old living in ChicagoWhat Is Atrial Flutter, American Heart AssociationAtrial Flutter, StatPearls Read More Details
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