Apple Watch Credited with Saving Man's Life After Fall (appleinsider.com) 61
"Apple Watch has been credited with saving yet another life after alerting emergency services to what could have been a fatal fall," reports Apple Insider:
On July 12, 25-year-old Brandon Schneider of Long Island visited the emergency room after suffering abdominal pain and a misdiagnosed kidney stone, reports People. Schneider asked to use the bathroom, where he lost consciousness and fell to the ground...
Luckily, Schneider was wearing an Apple Watch. The device's fall detection feature recognized the event and alerted emergency services, as well as his father who was with him at the time. "My Apple Watch detected a hard fall, and I did not respond to the like haptic message that requires a response and 45 seconds," Schneider said in an interview with a local ABC affiliate. Subsequent CT scans revealed a fractured skull and multiple hematomas that were growing in size. He underwent brain surgery and woke up four days later.
Though he doesn't remember much about the incident or surrounding days, he is on the mend and credits his survival to Apple Watch and an active lifestyle.
Luckily, Schneider was wearing an Apple Watch. The device's fall detection feature recognized the event and alerted emergency services, as well as his father who was with him at the time. "My Apple Watch detected a hard fall, and I did not respond to the like haptic message that requires a response and 45 seconds," Schneider said in an interview with a local ABC affiliate. Subsequent CT scans revealed a fractured skull and multiple hematomas that were growing in size. He underwent brain surgery and woke up four days later.
Though he doesn't remember much about the incident or surrounding days, he is on the mend and credits his survival to Apple Watch and an active lifestyle.
So do the life alert buttons... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
And anti-lock brakes, airbags, life jackets... ooh, if you really want to rake in the comments / ad impressions try a story on "man's life saved by carrying gun" - could be a new record.
Re: (Score:2)
"... so why not give those life alert buttons a free2
He's 25, that would be as uncool as being on Facebook.
Re:So do the life alert buttons... (Score:4, Informative)
The 'fitness tracker' is a better life alert system.
With the life alert system, the person has to press the button for help. Here the person lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
So we have a couple of factors that mark a new era:
-A multipurpose device that provides emergency services, so no longer does someone have to get a dedicated "I need help" device which young people generally don't feel they would need.
-The devices are able to monitor the situation more autonomously (accelerometer, heart rate, temperature, and more and more facets over time) and call for help without the owner intervening.
In today's news.... (Score:1)
25 yo (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Since its a feature built into an Apple whatsit. Most don't bother to configure it. He did (fortunately).
Old people have been know to purchase Apple widgets. And this feature was probably targeted at that market.
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Since its a feature built into an Apple whatsit. Most don't bother to configure it. He did (fortunately).
Old people have been know to purchase Apple widgets. And this feature was probably targeted at that market.
That's the reason we got one for my elderly mother. She had no interest in wearing one, but finally relented. Now you couldn't take it away from her. She loves it. BTW she did fall once, and the watch detected it, but someone also happened to be nearby.
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I don't remember configuring mine to do so but when I pounded my fist on the table because the iPad was dicking up the sound on a movie yet again, it popped up with the alert.
[John]
Not bad. (Score:4, Informative)
When I was still a firefighter volunteer, we've had those Dead Man's Switch devices that you could put on your jacket, coming with various functions that could trigger an alarm (like not moving for a while, which you might not want on a watch in most situations, or experiencing a sudden acceleration), which had to be reset by manually twisting and removing a key and putting it in again.
Fall detector works really well (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been wearing an Apple Watch for a number of years now, in large part because of this fall detector. You never know when some random slip will take you out.
It seems to work extremely well, I've only triggered it a handful of times when I did in fact fall very hard to the ground. Each time I was OK enough to dismiss it, but basically it has never gone off so much or in any situation I thought it should not have been triggered.
Also trying to convince my parents to wear one as I would feel a lot better about not being around them, but it's been harder to get them interested (even though I am giving them the watch to use).
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Also trying to convince my parents to wear one as I would feel a lot better about not being around them, but it's been harder to get them interested (even though I am giving them the watch to use).
Might come across better if you offered them one each.
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I'm not surprised that you fall down a lot.
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Maybe if it looked good and the battery lasted a few years, perhaps like the watches like they're presumably wearing.
I stopped wearing a watch about 20 years ago, but if I started again, the aesthetics, battery life and general longevity of a "smart watch" are a big negative. Even a classic 1980's Casio LCD watch is more appealing :)
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe if it looked good and the battery lasted a few years, perhaps like the watches like they're presumably wearing.
They don't wear watches currently which is probably more the problem.
As for looking good, my parents are not superficial like that... :-)
I don't think that the battery life is an issue, the current Apple Watches go about two days without a charge and charging them at night works just fine. It's more a matter of just starting wearing any watch at all I think, even with the value it brings in
Re: (Score:1)
Other options (Score:1)
Good thing no one ever gets up in the night do do anything in the dark without putting their watch on.
You also might get struck by a meteor which the watch clearly will not protect you against, therefore worthless.
Yes that is a potential coverage gap (or being inn the shower for that mater).
But soemthing is better than nothing.
And between the battery life and the charging rate, you could easily just set a watch to charge for some random period during the day for a 1/2 hour or so while you were watching a TV
Re: (Score:1)
Though since you brought it up, I'd imagine falling while having a nighttime pee is a *tiny* bit more likely than a meteor strike.
Sure, charging while sitting would be a great solution, but I was reacting to you saying "go about two days without a charge and charging them at night works just fine." I wouldn't have any jokes if you'd said your parents charged them while reading.
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, fair enough. :-)
And actually the point about falling in the night to go pee, is a very reasonable concern.
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Oddly when I slipped on the ice last year in the driveway and hit the ground hard enough to cause my ribs to be sore for several days, it didn't trigger an alert. But when I slammed my fist into the table because the iPad movie app I was using went to 0 sound yet again, it alerted.
[John]
Some thoughts on the other brands (Score:2)
Garmin and Samsung claim to offer similar incident detection, but they literally just call your mom. It is a near statistical certainty that people have died due to delayed help or the call going to voicemail. Still better than Fitbit though, which offers absolutely nothing.
He fell while in the emergency room bathroom. (Score:2)
Re: Guaranteed he didn't chiropractic care earlier (Score:2)
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Ugh, that was a rather graphic description. Too much information!
What technology SHOULD be used for (Score:3)
##THIS##
Here's an idea.. (Score:1)
Have the watch ask if the person is vaccinated and wearing a mask when out in a crowd.
Before you get too excited (Score:4, Funny)
Last year I fell and got three broken ribs and a collapsed lung. My apple watch did _not_ detect it. Further my wifes iphone somehow would not dial 911 and I had to yell at siri for her.
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What version of the apple watch do you have?
The fall detection is not on older models.
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Yea, that was what I was thinking as well. I had the Series 2 last year when I fell on the ice and only a month or so back replaced it with the Series 6. I tend not to replace such things every year. That's a bit expensive :)
[John]
Re: Before you get too excited (Score:2)
I'm Sure His Father Would Have Just Gone Home (Score:4, Insightful)
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How they misdiagnose a fractured skull and multiple hematomas as kidney stones is pretty unfathomable to me...
Or maybe TFS was just written super poorly because this is Slashdot.
Poorly written. It says the kidney stones were misdiagnosed but it doesn't give the actual diagnosis.
The multiple hematomas were caused by when he fell and his his head in the ER bathroom (which he was visiting for the not-kidney stones). So while I think the Apple Watch fall detection is a very useful feature, I think it's a bit of a stretch to suggest he'd be dead but for his watch.
Re: Sounds like medical malpractice to me (Score:1)
Not entirely reliable (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the reasons I bought an Apple Watch was for its fall detection feature. I go riding, including on trails, by my self quite regularly. I hoped that it would provide a measure of emergency protection. Does it detect a fall when I bang my hand down on the back of the knife to cleave a bone? Yup. Does it detect a fall when I do a Laugh In level bicycle tip over (Google it)? Yup. Did it alert when I tagged a handlebar on a tree and got flipped off the trail landing 8 feet down an embankment, knocked unconscious briefly with broken ribs and a bruise lung? Nope. Not a peep.
Re: (Score:3)
As Meatloaf would say, Two out of three ain't bad.
This could only be a USA hospital (Score:2)
Had this been news in any other country, the headline would read: "Hospital staff left injured man alone, fall, fracture skull."
I'm not going to get anywhere near his watch. What terrible staff-member let a crippled-in-pain man go anywhere alone.
Oh look, his father was there too. It's certainly possible that his father is 70 years old. But it's far more likely that his father is 50 years old, and able to escort his ailing son to the bathroom.
So, big huge human fail. Father and entire hospital staff.
And
Re: This could only be a USA hospital (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I most certainly do lack first-hand knowledge of getting injured in a hospital. You're right about that. And you'd better believe that when I've accompanied someone else to the hospital, I don't let them go off alone. You're right about that too.
So you can blame the staff, or you can blame the father, but either way, the injured man should not have been alone in a bathroom.
Re: This could only be a USA hospital (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
1. "visited the emergency room after suffering abdominal pain"
2. "Schneider asked to use the bathroom"
3. "his father who was with him at the time"
so, a man, bent over in pain, went to the hospital.
he had to ask to use the bathroom -- so he was asking staff, he didn't just wander off.
his father couldn't have cared less.
You can believe whatever you want. But your lesson-of-the-day is that if you need an entire medical institution to serve you, then you need help. In fact, it's a general umbrella rule that f
LoL... Apple does nee some good news lately (Score:2)
to counter-act their bad decisions...
Smart tools (Score:1)
Excuse me: (Score:2)
My samsung Gear 3 Frontier (Score:2)
Kudos Apple (Score:2)
Genius alert schema to include advising nearest iDevice to come to aid!
I just experienced the exact same-similar episode down in Panama. Recovering from food poisoning, stood up, took a piss and lights out! I didn’t have time to brace, catch or even move. The switch simply turned off.
Seconds later I awoke in a crumble, on the bathroom floor, between toilet and shower door. I was feeble-weak barely regaining consciousness. I didn’t yet have mobility nor the energy to move. Many minutes later all
Had almost a similar experience (Score:3)