Fitbit wearables are helpful for monitoring heart rates and counting steps during workouts, but can also provide critical medical data. A New Jersey man was recently rushed to a hospital by ambulance where physicians learned that the man had a fast and irregular heartbeat. His Fitbit Charge HR showed that he had an irregular heartbeat just before the seizure so medical staff did an electrocardioversion to get the heart rate back to normal.
Doctors were unsure if the 42-year-old man had a chronic condition or if his racing heart was due to the seizure that happened 20 minutes before arriving at the ER. Dr. Alfred Sacchetti is a physician at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, NJ. He shared in a statement that the Fitbit activity tracker showed when the patient's heart rate jumped from 70 to 190 before he arrived at the emergency room, according to Digital Trends.
The man's irregular heartbeat is a condition known as atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to Phone Arena. It usually starts with brief abnormal heart beats but could become continuous as time passes.
If the AFib were a chronic condition, using shock therapy could trigger a stroke. On the other hand, a stroke could still happen if the doctors did not treat the irregular heartbeats. The staff members noticed the wrist wearable and that it was synched with a mobile app.
Most fitness trackers include a heart rate monitor. Their data is not as accurate as a medical device but the data that is collected can still help doctors to make big decisions about a patient's health.
Fitbit health trackers can detect a wide range of different heart rate changes. A woman recently figured out she was pregnant after doing a Google search to learn what could be causing the heartrate changes.
In related news, an Israeli law student learned from his Fitbit app that his heart rate spiked from 72 beats per minute to 88 after breaking up with his lover. He works out three times a week usually doing gymnastics, but did not pay much attention to the fitness tracker. After he shared his story online by making one tweet it went viral.
This video takes up if fitness tracker heart rate monitors are accu
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