Mum of four saved by her smartwatch
Ricki-Lee Wynne was gifted a smartwatch from her husband for her 40th birthday and she believes that without it, she wouldn’t be alive today.
"There's no doubt that my smartwatch saved my life," she told 9news.com.au.
Months prior to receiving the watch, Wynne had been experiencing strange health problems.
"I was getting a pain over my shoulder blades and it hurt each time I breathed in," she said.
Doctors were confused and Wynne was in and out of hospital having several X-rays, scans and blood tests in an attempt to find the underlying issue.
Wynne also had an echocardiogram to test the functioning of her heart, all of which appeared normal.
"The doctors were not sure what it was. They thought it could be a low-grade blood cancer," she said.
The pain subsided for a little while but soon enough Wynne’s breathing problems returned.
"I woke up one day and I couldn't breathe properly. I was just walking into work and I was thinking, 'Gosh, I can't get enough air into my lungs,'" she said.
"I couldn't walk from one side of the room to the other without being short of breath.
"I went to my GP and had an x-ray done, but nothing showed up.”
That’s when Wynne noticed her smartwatch was acting up.
"I'd been struggling with my watch for days to try and get the heart rate to show up," she said.
The heart rate function of her smartwatch had never been an issue before, but now it was struggling to pick it up.
"It was saying you need to change the position to measure a pulse," she said.
"My chest was also feeling kind of wobbly for a couple of nights when I went to bed.”
Despite her X-ray showing coming up clear, Wynne said she went back to see her GP and told him she was worried something was really wrong.
"I just said to him, 'Even my heart rate isn't right, look at my watch,' and I showed it to him.”
Wynne’s GP sent her off for an ECG which showed her heart rate had dropped to just 29 beats per minute, a major cause for concern.
"As soon as I had the ECG, I had the doctor call me back and say you need to go straight to Box Hill Hospital," she said.
"I was told at the hospital that if I hadn't come in I would have just died in my sleep.
"I would not have woken up and my heart would have stopped.”
Wynne was then fitted with an emergency pacemaker and eventually diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder called sarcoidosis, a condition that causes inflammation in different parts of the body, most commonly the lungs.
Doctors believe Wynne's sarcoidosis moved from her lungs to her heart, causing her to become extremely ill.
She still has the pacemaker in and combined with medication, her health has improved significantly.
It’s safe to say Wynne won’t be taking off her smartwatch any time soon.
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