On April 22, Diana Feenstra, a woman from Norton Shores, said her Apple Watch alerted her of a heart rate of 169 beats per minute, despite no vigorous exercise.
Ms. Feenstra went to an urgent care clinic where an EKG showed she had a recent heart attack without realizing it. Further analysis determined she had a so-called widowmaker heart attack, which is caused when the left anterior descending artery is fully blocked.
“Unlike men who feel an elephant on their chest many times, a woman’s heart attack symptoms are very different,” Ms. Feenstra told the news outlet. “I had pain going down my left hand, I had a little swelling in my left foot, I had indigestion, and I just explained it away as acid reflux that I might have picked up later in life. The biggest thing was pain in my neck and shoulder, and I figured I had vacuumed and put my muscles out of whack somehow.”
Ms. Feenstra had a stent procedure and is recovering well.
“The heart is building up its stamina and I am so happy,” she told WZZM 13. “I think God used that watch to alert me to the fact that my heart wasn’t functioning properly.”
