Atlanta man credits Apple Watch with saving his life
‘I was not going to last much longer,’ Bob Ichter said.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Life is a canvas for Little Five Points resident Bob Ichter. Although he’s spent the past 40 years painting for a living, he once sought a career in a very different field.
“I was actually pre-med,” Ichter said.
The change in careers means Ichter is not a medical expert. So, when his Apple Watch told him his heart rate fluctuated wildly during a February bike ride, Ichter concluded the watch wasn’t working.
“I thought, ‘Well, this watch isn’t accurate,’” He said. “‘Maybe I don’t have it on tight enough or something like that.’”
But the incident and friends nagged at him, urging him to see a doctor.
“Turns out that I had an undiagnosed heart defect where my aortic valve was a bicuspid instead of tricuspid,” he said.
Ichter had gone into atrial fibrillation, or AFib, an abnormal heartbeat that can quickly turn deadly.
“I wouldn’t have known it was AFib if not for the fact that the watch told me,” Ichter said.
His painting went on the back burner, replaced by heart surgery and a nearly month-long hospital stay.
“The great doctors at Piedmont replaced my aortic valve,” he said.
Ichter is thankful for those doctors. He also wrote a thank you email to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Cook wrote back.
“Hi, Bob,” the email reads. “I’m so glad you sought medical attention and received the treatment you needed. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us. Be well, and keep pedaling. Best, Tim.”
Ichter is back on the bike, back in his studio, and back out of AFib.
And his experience has him thinking a bit abstractly about the meaning of “an apple a day”.
“I was not going to last much longer, they said,” Ichter said.
Note: You shouldn’t rely solely on wearable devices for your medical information. If you think you might have a heart problem, you are encouraged to see your doctor right away, regardless of what those devices say.
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