Doctor Uses Apple Watch's Now-Axed Blood Oxygen Feature To Save Woman's Life On Flight

Apple Watch's blood oxygen feature, which has now been axed, helped save a woman's life on a flight, according to the BBC. The unnamed British woman, 70, was experiencing shortness of breath on a Ryanair flight from the UK to Italy on January 9, leading crew members to seek a doctor on board to assist in emergency. National Health Service (NHS) doctor Rashid Riaz was on the flight and stepped forward to help. The 43-year-old asked the flight crew if they had an Apple Watch to monitor the woman's vitals, as per the BBC report. Dr Riaz then used the device's native health-monitoring software to gauge the patient's oxygen levels.

The blood oxygen feature measure the percentage of oxygen your red blood cells carry from your lungs to the rest of the body and low levels are associated with breathing issues.

Dr Riaz said that Apple Watch helped him determine the woman's low oxygen saturation, and revealed that she had a history of heart issues.

"The Apple Watch helped me find out the patient had low oxygen saturation," he told the outlet. He then asked staff for an on-board oxygen cylinder.

This allowed him to monitor and maintain the woman's saturation levels until they safely landed in Italy about an hour later.

"I used a lot of my own learning during this flight on how to use the gadget. It is a lesson in how we can improve in-flight journeys with this sort of emergency via a basic gadget which nowadays is easily available," Dr Riaz said.

According to Apple website, the blood oxygen app on its watch is not intended for medical use and is only designed for "general fitness and wellness purposes".

But it removed the app from Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watches last week due to a patent dispute with medical technology company Masimo.

The tech giant had briefly halted sales of the two Apple models last month after a trade commission ruling, but a court allowed temporary sales. To lift the permanent ban, Apple agreed to deactivate the contested feature.