How A Noisy Apple Watch Saved Kiwi Woman From The Brink Of Death: 'It Was Screaming At Me'
Amanda Faulkner, who had always considered herself healthy and active, was shocked to discover she had acute myeloid leukaemia, which was caught first by her smartwatch.
A 51-year-old psychiatrist from Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, is crediting her Apple Watch with alerting her to a life-threatening illness that could have claimed her life within hours. Amanda Faulkner, who had always considered herself healthy and active, was shocked to discover she had acute myeloid leukaemia — a diagnosis that only came to light because her smartwatch wouldn’t stop beeping.
A Health Warning She Almost Ignored
As reported by 1News, Faulkner had been using her husband’s Apple Watch for years before finally purchasing her own. Like many users, she was aware of the watch’s ability to track health indicators — heart rate, sleep duration, blood oxygen, wrist temperature, and more — but never expected it would play a crucial role in detecting something as serious as cancer.
When her new watch consistently showed a high resting heart rate, she initially assumed it was a technical glitch. “I kept on ignoring it until it got to the point where it was literally screaming at me,” Faulkner admitted.
Her heart rate had climbed above 90 beats per minute at rest. Persistent alerts from the vitals app eventually pushed her to consult her general practitioner, who immediately referred her to the emergency department.
A Shocking Diagnosis Within Hours
Within just four hours of hospital testing, Faulkner was given the devastating news: she had acute myeloid leukaemia, a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer.
“It’s like a nuclear bomb going off in your life,” she said. “I’m a very optimistic, cheerful person, and I’m a strong person, but you never know how you’re going to react. I felt numb, I felt distraught. It’s like you’re on a rollercoaster that you never chose to be on but once you’re on it, you just have to sit there and go along for the ride.”
Doctors told her that had she waited another 48 hours, the outcome could have been fatal. “I was just on the verge of multiple organ failure. I was literally hours away from death,” she said. She was immediately transferred to Palmerston North Hospital for chemotherapy and has since gone into remission.
Advocacy Through Experience
Although her condition has improved, Faulkner is aware of the challenges that lie ahead. The type of leukaemia she has carries a high risk of relapse. She’s now awaiting a stem cell transplant — but no hospital bed is available until July.
Faulkner, one of only two psychiatrists in New Zealand who specialise in dissociative identity disorder, is calling for improvements in the health system to reduce wait times for critical care.
“The health system needs to fix me so I can get out there and fix other people,” she said.
She also urged others — especially women — to take vague symptoms seriously and seek medical help early, regardless of how minor the issue may seem.
“Be an advocate for your own wellbeing,” she said. “The earlier you get on and treat something the better the outcome.”
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