16 January 2023 , 12:10
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A woman has opened up about how her Apple Watch saved her life, after it sent her an alarming notification about what happened as she slept.
She has claimed that the watch saved her life after alarming her of an unknown heart condition.
Elaine Thompson, 59, has said that if the device did not alert her of the issue and she hadn't had gone to the doctors about it, she "could have died".
The 59-year-old went to see a doctor when the device told her she had an irregular rhythm, which led to her being given a heart monitor to wear for a week.
Shockingly, the device flagged up that she had flatlined for around 19 seconds in her sleep.
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The mum claims her Apple Watch saved her life when it alerted her to see a doctor (Elaine Thompson / SWNS)
Elaine's Apple Watch heart rate report (Elaine Thompson / SWNS)She was then rushed to hospital - where she was diagnosed with a heart block.
The woman, from Gateshead, now has a pacemaker and credits her Apple Watch with first alerting her that something was up.
Elaine said: "It saved my life. If I hadn’t had the alert I wouldn’t have brought it up with the doctor. Now I wear the Apple Watch all the time.
"It was so scary knowing I could have died. I flatlined for 19 seconds. I might not have woken up."
She underwent treatment for epilepsy after she started suffering seizures in April 2018, and was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.
The mum-of-two, was given a heart monitor for a week in November 2022 (Elaine Thompson / SWNS)However, tests did not reveal anything wrong with her.
But Elaine continued to collapse, and so was put on a medication to try and stop her episodes.
Then, in February 2022, her daughter, Ashleigh Thompson, 39, suggested that she wear an Apple Watch as a monitor for her symptoms.
Elaine said: "When I woke up one day there was a red alert. It advised to see a doctor so I did and showed them the results the watch had recorded.”
While tests again came back as normal, the mum-of-two was put on a waiting list for a heart monitor.
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The mum now has to wear a pacemaker, which has left a scar (Elaine Thompson / SWNS)
Elaine was worried when she woke up to her a red alert on her watch saying she had irregular rhythm measurements (Elaine Thompson / SWNS)Finally, she had one fitted in November, and found the results out in January 2023, where she was told that she needed to go to the hospital urgently.
Elaine said: "My daughter rang me and told me I needed to go in to hospital urgently and the doctors were trying to get hold of me.
"I went in and they told me that my results showed I’d flatlined for 19 seconds.
"They told me it was an electrical fault with my heart and that I needed to be fitted with a pacemaker.
"I had it done the next day and now I have it for life. But it’s a relief I went to get it looked at, otherwise I might be dead."
Elaine was diagnosed with an atrioventricular block, which is a heart block where the heart beats more slowly or with an abnormal rhythm.
The condition is graded according to severity according to the NHS website, with the most serious sometimes categorised as a medical emergency.