There are those who post negative reviews about their experiences with the Fitbit, while there is another part of the sector that praises its potential, especially when it comes to aiding doctors. For the people who are unhappy with this particular wearable tech, they are even willing to sue. However, a 42-year-old man would say otherwise as he gives credit to the wristband as he claims that it had dramatically improved his health.
Man’s Says His Fitbit Dramatically Improved His Health
The man was recently admitted to the emergency room over at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center located at Camden, New Jersey. He has an irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia) and he suffered in the wake of a seizure. He has a condition in which doctors would treat is with an electrocardioversion after consulting the data gathered from the wearable tech that the man had.
This story is probably the first time that a patient was diagnosed and was properly treated because of the data gathered from a Fitbit device. However, the makers of this particular wearable tech was unavailable to comment with regards to the issue.
So how did it all begin? The man’s story starts when he was suffering from a grand mal seizure which lasted about one minute. He already had a history of seizures and was under medication to prevent them from happening. Sadly, it was a day wherein he forget to take his pill to which an attack happened. By the time that paramedics arrived on the scene, the seizure had already stopped but the patient already had an irregular heart rhythm, along with other symptoms.
Once the patient arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, doctors had to decide how to treat the irregular heart rhythm. As for the hospital’s standard operating procedure (SOP), it states that if a patient could “reliably relate” that the onset of the arrhythmia was within 48-hours, then the doctors could use electrocardioversion to reset his heart rate.
Unfortunately, at the time when he was brought to the hospital, the patient could not confirm the issue. This was then hospital doctors noticed the Fitbit on his wrist. After looking closely at the information gathered by the device on the patient’s smartphone, the medical practitioners were able to confirm that his pulse rate had indeed spiked after his seizure. The heart rate only came done once paramedics were able to treat the elevated pulse. After being confident about the data gathered by the device, doctors then performed the electrocardioversion to resent the patient’s heart rhythm.