My Apple watch saved my life after alerting me to a deadly health condition I didn’t know I had

A 35-year-old New York City woman credits her Apple Watch with saving her life after it alerted her to a fatal health condition.

Jessie Malone, a producer at Peloton Interactive, was riding an electric bike home when her smartwatch alerted her to a rising heart rate last May.

“It said, ‘You must seek medical attention immediately.’ It was red and shaking. I was like, “Oh my God,” she said in an interview with Today.com.

She heeded the warning and decided to go to the emergency room, where she was immediately given medication and underwent a minimally invasive procedure the next day.

“I just wanted to go home and take a nap when my watch didn’t show anything,” recalls Malone, now 36.

Malone recalled waking up feeling nauseous in her friend’s apartment, but still feeling well enough for the bike ride home.

Soon after, her Apple Watch started sending her alerts about a heart rate above 160 beats per minute and advised her to seek medical attention.

At the time, Malone was unfamiliar with atrial fibrillation (Afib), an irregular, often rapid heartbeat that can lead to poor circulation, blood clots and even stroke.

‘I didn’t really feel anything other than nausea. That made me a little worried. I’m like, ‘That’s so bizarre.'”

“It started blaring out that my resting heart rate was elevated and also that I had been taking Afib,” Malone added.

She remembered ditching the back end and texting her friend saying, “This thing is happening. I don’t know if it’s serious.’

At Mount Sinai West’s emergency room, the 36-year-old shared her experience with staff.

‘Suddenly I am surrounded by eight doctors. At that point, one of the doctors asked, “Has anyone in your family ever died without any explanation?” she recalls.

“And I was like, ‘Wow, what?!'” She found herself disbelieving it, but soon realized the severity of her condition.

Doctors rushed to give Malone two types of drugs to lower her heart rate to 130 per minute.

The next day, she underwent cardioversion, a procedure in which doctors used electricity to return her heart rate to a normal rhythm.

‘I was in shock the whole time. It felt like an out-of-body experience. “I felt very nervous,” she said.

The then 35-year-old was fortunate enough to be allowed home the next day and was able to pick up beta blockers and blood thinners at a local CVS.

“It was one of those things where in a normal scenario I would be frustrated by a long line. But I thought, “Wow, I’m alive and I work at CVS. This is amazing,” she said.

Nearly a year after the procedure, Malone shared a video of her experience on Instagram, calling it “the scariest three days of” [her] to live.’

What she experienced, atrial fibrillation (Afib), is often called a ‘silent killer’ and is known to be more common in people with high blood pressure.

Doctors remain baffled about the exact cause of atrial fibrillation, which was previously thought to affect around a quarter of adults by the time they die.

But Danish experts who analyzed the health records of millions of adults found that the risk has only increased.

The overall lifetime risk was calculated at 31 percent between 2011 and 2022, compared to 24 percent between 2000 and 2010.

Researchers also found that two in five patients are likely to develop heart failure. One in five will have a stroke.

After the horrific experience, Malone began changing her diet and cutting down on caffeine and alcohol.

‘I give a lot of priority to sleep. “It’s all about getting myself back in a healthy way,” she said.

“The doctor was under the impression that maybe (lack of sleep and too much caffeine) had built up and become so extreme that it was causing the Afib.”

“It was the perfect storm of basically living in New York City and not taking care of yourself.”

After months of exercise, Malone ran a half marathon in Central Park in February and registered for a marathon in Washington DC in early May.

“I feel like a completely different person with so much more energy,” she said. ‘You have to prioritize your own health, that’s the most important thing.’