When 26-year-old Sahil, a rice manufacturer from Nainpur, Madhya Pradesh, was out on a routine business trip to Jabalpur earlier this month, he hadn't imagined his Apple Watch Series 9 would end up saving his life. Instances of Apple Watch turning savior on many occasions have been well documented, and now a young businessman witnessed it firsthand.
Sahil, who owns a rice manufacturing plant and often travels to nearby cities for meetings, spoke to International Business Times to share his experience. He said that he initially bought the watch two years ago just to track his fitness.
"I only bought the watch to track my runs and gym workouts—my calorie intake and burning every day. I never thought it was going to help me in my very crucial time," he told IBT.
A normal day that turned alarming
That morning, Sahil wasn't feeling his best but brushed it off. "When I woke up, I was feeling a little off, maybe under the weather because it had been raining for days," he recalled. "I had been travelling for the past two days, sleeping less, eating junk. I thought I was just tired."
After finishing his meetings in Jabalpur, Sahil decided to catch a movie before heading back home. "I was supposed to board my train at 7:30 p.m. I went for a movie to relax. Two and a half hours later, I got a notification on my Apple Watch that my heart rate was above 120—even though I'd been sitting still for 20 to 25 minutes," he said.
The alert came as a surprise. "I was literally sitting in an air-conditioned theatre doing nothing, but my heartbeat was over 120. It was alarming. That's when I decided to skip the train and see a doctor," Sahil said.
Before leaving the theatre, he even recorded an ECG using his Apple Watch. "I'm not a medical professional, so I didn't know how to read it, but I took it anyway," he said.
At the clinic, his fears were confirmed. "The doctor told me my blood pressure was 180/120 and my pulse was 125. For someone my age, that's dangerously high," Sahil said. "When I showed him the ECG from the watch, he said it showed tachycardia, meaning my pulse was abnormally high."
He was then sent for a full ECG at a hospital. "Even the doctor was amazed—both the Apple Watch ECG and the hospital one looked the same. My rhythm was normal, but my heart rate was elevated," he said.
Sahil was immediately admitted for observation. "They ran multiple tests—bloodwork, troponin, echo—everything came out normal. The doctor said it was because of exertion, stress, poor sleep, and diet. But he also told me that if I had boarded that train, I might have collapsed on the way from a brain hemorrhage," Sahil recalled.
"Thank you for saving my life"
The incident shook him deeply. "The Apple Watch literally stopped me from boarding that train," he said. "It saved me from going without saying goodbye to my loved ones."
Grateful for the alert, Sahil wrote to Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook, soon after his recovery. "The subject of my email was simple—'Thank you for saving my life," he said. "I also gave credit to Tim Cook and the Apple team for building something that protected me when I didn't even know I was in danger."
To his surprise, Cook personally replied. "He wished me well and said he was happy I got the medical treatment I needed," Sahil told IBT.
