A doctor used the Apple Watch to help an elderly woman who needed emergency medical care during a flight.
This was reported by the BBC.
The incident occurred on a Ryanair flight from Birmingham to Verona on January 9, when a woman in her 70s began to choke.
Rashid Riaz, a 43-year-old British doctor, approached her after a crew member asked if there was a doctor on board.
The woman, whose name has not been publicly disclosed, did not initially answer Riaz’s questions, but after learning that she had heart problems, the doctor asked the flight attendant to bring her an Apple Watch to measure the oxygen level in her blood.
“The Apple Watch helped me find out that the patient had low oxygen saturation,” he said.
Riaz used the Blood Oxygen app for the watch, which is designed for “general fitness and wellness purposes. Apple’s website says that the app is “not intended for medical use,” but in this case, it turned out to be useful.
Riaz asked the flight attendants for an oxygen tank, which helped him stabilize the woman’s oxygen saturation until they landed in Italy.
After landing, the woman received additional medical care and recovered quickly.
“During this flight, I applied a lot of my own knowledge about how to use the gadget,” Riaz said.
“It’s a lesson in how we can improve the in-flight travel experience with this kind of emergency with a simple gadget that is readily available these days.”
Riaz praised the airline for the way they handled the issue, but recommended that planes should have tools to measure body metrics such as oxygen saturation and blood pressure, as well as determine if someone has a diabetic emergency.
“These things can save someone’s life in an emergency,” he added.
