The Apple Watch has multiple health monitoring features such as blood oxygen sensing, heart rate monitoring, activity and sleep tracking, crash and fall detection and many more.
While it does notify you at the early signs of irregular heart rhythms and atrial fibrillation in order to get help early on, does the Apple Watch call emergency services if the person dies?
Unfortunately, despite the many health benefits, your Apple Watch does not call emergency services or beep an alarm if it doesn’t detect a heartbeat.
Think of it this way, when we don’t wear our Apple Watch or if it’s loose on my arm, it doesn’t necessarily track my heart rate but it doesn’t do anything to alarm anyone about a missing heartbeat either, does it?
Apple Watch and its heart monitoring features:
If someone falls hard before they die, though, the Apple Watch (Series 4 and later) will trigger Fall Detection and call emergency services. But other than that, the Apple Watch lacks the technology to detect if someone has died.
The other heart monitoring features of the Apple Watch are:
- High and low heart rate alerts- The Apple Watch sends notifications if it detects an abnormally low (below 40bpm) or abnormally high heart rate.
- Irregular heart rhythm notifications- While using the ECG app, the Apple Watch will detect irregular heart rhythm and send the report to the Health app. This report can later be shared in a PDF format with your doctor, and they can look further into it.
- Fall and Crash Detection- if the Apple Watch detects a hard fall or a car crash, it will start a 30 second timer and beep to notify the people around. You can let the watch know you’re ok by cancelling the countdown to call emergency services, or if the watch detects immobility for 30 seconds, it will automatically proceed to call 911 and alert them and your emergency contact with your location.
- AFib detection- The Apple Watch can also help in detecting signs of atrial fibrillation early on so that a proper diagnosis can be done before the condition can get out of hand.
Some limitations of the Apple Watch Heart Rate monitoring
- The Apple Watch does not send high or low heart rate or irregular rhythm notifications if the watch has low power mode turned on.
- The Apple Watch is not equipped to detect heart attacks.
- The Apple Watch does not constantly look to detect AFib and people with this condition could possibly not get a notification.
- The Apple Watch’s diagnosis should not be considered medical advice, therefore, a false irregular heart rhythm could be due to AFib instead or vice versa.
Wrap Up
While the Apple Watch does not detect or alert anyone if someone has passed away, the health metrics it tracks can be a great insight into what is going on inside your body.
These can also be used to detect early signs of more serious conditions and get professional help. However, the Apple Watch should not be considered a substitute for medical devices or diagnosis and if you’re not feeling well, please contact your doctor.
