A woman from Oklahoma got her life saved by Apple Watch after an AFib alert

A woman from Oklahoma credits the Apple Watch as the thing that potentially saved her life.

The story dates from 2021, but it’s only now that she shares details on what could have been a tragedy (via 9to5Mac) – on November 14, it’s World Diabetes Day. That’s what Judith Luebke of Oklahoma got diagnosed with; a problem she never knew she suffered from before.

After an emergent doctor visit, she was diagnosed with critically high blood sugar levels, a deadly combination for the diabetic.

One Friday morning, she recalls, she got a notification on her Apple Watch. The notification was an alert, saying she was in AFib (Atrial fibrillation – an abnormal heart rhythm, also known as arrhythmia). She thought that was just due to the stress of recently losing a loved one.

“I talked to my boss that morning and said, ‘you know, I’ve got a meeting this morning. Maybe I’ll see the doctor after that, maybe I will, maybe I won’t — maybe I’ll wait the weekend’,” she explained. Her boss, however, convinced her not to dismiss the alert but instead leave for the doctor.

After getting to the hospital, Luebke learned she was diabetic and had critically high sugar levels.

”If I had waited the weekend, I probably would not have survived,” she said. “That’s what I would’ve done if I’d not gotten the notification on my watch. I just figured with everything going on, I just wasn’t feeling good, and I’ll get to the doctor when I get to the doctor.”

Her daughter, Shannon Bowers, is another person who’s beyond glad that her mother went to the hospital.

”I don’t know what I would do without her. If it hadn’t been for the watch, and if it hadn’t been for the people in her life – her boss and her other coworkers – telling her ‘no, you need to go in’, and her listening, she wouldn’t be here”, Bowers said.