Apple Watch Credited With Saving Westchester County Man's Life

LARCHMONT, NY — William Monzidelis was working at his family's bowling alley in the Bronx a month ago when the Westchester County resident started to fall ill. Feeling dizzy, he went to a restroom and started bleeding. That's when he says his Apple Watch saved his life.

The watch sent him an urgent alert, WNBC-TV reported: seek medical attention immediately.

Monzidelis left the restroom and told his mother he felt ill. The two started the 30-minute drive to the hospital. He began slipping in and out of consciousness and lost nearly 80 percent of his blood.

“I was seizing in the car and bleeding all over the place, from my mouth, my rectum,” Monzidelis told the outlet.

Hospital staff said he had suffered an erupted ulcer and had lost too much blood and needed a transfusion to undergo surgery.

“I lost so much blood that I needed a transfusion for the anesthesia to travel to my brain and put me out for the surgery,” he told the news outlet.

Monzidelis and medical staff agreed he probably would've died had the watch not alerted him. He says he hopes by sharing his story, others will also consider using the technology.

It wasn't immediately clear if Monzidelis was alerted by Apple's Heart Study app, a similar app or the device's built-in heart monitoring system. You can download the Apple Heart Study for free on the App Store.

The Apple Watch was also credited with helping save the life of Deanna Recktenwald, 18, in Lithia, Florida. Recktenwald's watch told her she needed to seek immediate medical attention while she was at church.

Her resting heart rate had risen to 190 beats a minute. A normal resting rate is about 60 to 100 beats per minute.

She was later diagnosed with kidney failure.

“The only symptom that I had was that I was out of breath from walking and standing and sitting so it kind of didn't make much sense,” Recktenwald told ABC News.

ABC reported her mother wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook thanking Apple for the "lifesaving" product.

“I am forever grateful to Apple for developing such an amazing lifesaving product,” she wrote.

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