Apple Watch fall detection helps rescue a man who fell off a cliff

According to News 12 New Jersey, last week Prudenciano and his date, Paige Paruso, were out on a hike and got lost. They ended up on a steep cliff, and when it got dark they cooked up a plan to slide down the cliff onto what they hoped would be solid ground. But all that was underneath them was rocks and water. Both were hanging on to the cliff for life and when Paruso landed in the water below, she was alive but suffered a minor injury. With Prudenciano still gripping the cliff, his Apple Watch detected his date's hard fall and called 9-1-1. He told the dispatcher that he was going to die and later said, "I really felt I was going to die. There was no way out of this for me. I said my last goodbyes."

Prudenciano slipped into the water but landed on some rocks causing three fractures. Thanks to his Apple Watch and the call it made to 9-1-1, both he and Paruso were rescued, put on a boat that happened to be in the area, and ended up receiving treatment at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center. At the same time that the Apple Watch was calling 9-1-1, Prudenciano's mother says she received three text messages from the time letting her know there was an emergency. The incident, by the way, occurred on Prudenciano and Paruso's first date. We wonder if there will be a second date.

Besides the fall detection feature, the Series 4 and Series 5 Apple Watch have a heart rate monitor and an electrocardiogram (ECG). The former alerts users when their heart rate is too high and the latter detects abnormal heart rhythms. Together with the fall detection, the Apple Watch has saved a number of lives over the years. The device has become the most popular band-worn wearable in the world and by some counts, it is the most popular watch in the world. That is pretty impressive when you consider how long watchmakers like Rolex on the high-end and Casio on the low-end have been around.

When Apple introduced the Apple Watch in 2015, it actually wasn't sure what it had. On one side the device was considered another mobile tech device, and on the other hand Apple pushed it as a fashion item. It arranged for the device to be photographed in fashion magazines and sold at high-end jewelry stores. But eventually, Apple decided to focus on the technology aspects of the watch, including the health-related features. The company is said to working on a native sleep monitoring app for next year's timepiece and is reportedly developing what would be a blockbuster feature. This would be a glucometer to measure a wearer's blood sugar. Insulin dependent diabetics need to test themselves several times a day to see how much insulin to take before a meal. This requires that they prick themselves (a painful process we might add) before each test. It also requires the purchase of expensive test strips that are used once and discarded. If the Apple Watch can include a sensor to test blood glucose, it could result in a surge in sales. After all, there are millions of diabetics world wide who take insulin daily.