It isn't unusual for an Apple Watch to help save someone's life these days, whether that's thanks to its heart rate monitoring technology or something like Crash Detection that calls for help after a wreck. But a new report detailing how an Apple Watch Ultra helped save one swimmer's life is a little different from the usual fare.
Rick Shearman was treading water in rough seas just off the coast of Australia when he found that he perhaps wasn't as safe as he thought after being caught in the impact zone where the waves he was body surfing broke. He was left treading water more than half a mile out to sea, and with time very not on his side.
"I copped a couple of big ones on the head and was held under for a while, I started to panic a bit and cramp up underwater there," the man said, but thankfully he had the presence of mind to use his Apple Watch to summon help.
"Bobbing out somewhere in international waters"
Being interviewed by ABC North Coast, the surfer was able to use the Apple Watch's Emergency SOS feature to call emergency services who then mobilized to rescue him. And it couldn't have happened if it wasn't for his Apple Watch, he says.
"If it wasn't for being able to access that service in my watch I'd probably be bobbing out somewhere in international waters by now," the report quotes Sherman as saying, with Jimmy Keogh from Surf Life Saving Far North Coast echoing the sentiment.
"The search area for the person in the water with the conditions that we had, it would have been a pretty substantial search area involving multiple agencies that could have gone one for days as well," Keogh said.
