Apple Watch Credited With Saving Woman’s Life After Poisoning

Apple’s Tim Cook highlighting the life-saving capabilities of the Apple Watch last September seems to be justified, after a woman credited the wearable device with saving her life.

CBS News reported about a Delaware student called Natalie Nasatka, who used the SOS function on her Apple Watch to summon the emergency services after she began to feel dizzy prior to her passing out in her apartment in Smyrna, Delaware.

When Tim Cook had revealed the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 to the world last September, he began by focusing on how the Apple Watch could help people’s health, followed by a promotional video that featured a number of people who said the Apple Watch helped save their lives, either by detecting heart rate changes or Apple’s emergency SOS feature.

Carbon monoxide

In the case of Natalie Nasatka, CBS News reported that she credited her Apple Watch for saving her life after she passed out from carbon monoxide poisoning.

“It was extremely scary,” Natalie Nasatka was quoted by CBS News as stating. “I ended up losing consciousness.”

“I was feeling extremely exhausted,” Nasatka reportedly said. “My vision was getting blurry.”

Before she passed out, Nasatka reached for her Apple Watch. She hit the SOS button, putting out an emergency call to 911.

There was no mention of what model of Apple Watch that Nasatka was wearing.

“When I heard the firefighters yell out ‘fire department’ and they yanked me out of bed, I just started crying and saying ‘I want to live. I want to live,’” she was quoted as saying.

Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no colour, odour or taste and can be fatal if a person is not found in time.

The good news is that Nasatka was revived in an ambulance with oxygen.

Her cat was also reportedly rescued from the potentially life threatening situation.

“The carbon monoxide was confirmed because the fire department monitor read 80 parts per million in the apartment, which is extremely high,” Nasatka was quoted by CBS News as stating.

Nasatka thinks the gas leak came from a faulty heater, which is one of the leading causes for carbon monoxide poisoning in the winter.

Nasatka acknowledges that she should have had a carbon monoxide detector in her apartment.

River rescue

Apple had been touting the life saving capabilities of its Watch device for a while now.

In 2022 for example Apple emphasised the emergency features of Apple Watch Series 8.

And in early 2021 a cyclist in Herefordshire was swept off his bike and into the flooded River Wye in Rotherwas (UK).

The man was carried a mile downstream, but managed to grab hold of a branch and used his Apple Watch to dial 999 and speak to fire control at the emergency services.

The man was rescued within 20 minutes.

How to use Emergency SOS on an Apple Watch

• Press and hold the side button (the button below the Digital Crown) until the Emergency Call slider appears.
• Drag the Emergency Call slider to begin the call with the emergency services.
• Alternatively, a person can hold down the side button, and after a countdown, the Apple Watch watch calls emergency services automatically.

According to Apple, once a person make a call with Emergency SOS, Apple Watch automatically shares location data with emergency services.

When the call ends, the Apple Watch will also send a person’s emergency contacts a text message sharing their current location.