Non-health related Apple Watch feature saves a cop’s life

Features on the Apple Watch have saved quite a few lives over the years, starting with the heart rate sensor on the timepiece. The fall detector has also done its part by alerting emergency services when someone has fallen and couldn’t get up. Then came the electrocardiogram sensor delivering warnings of abnormal heart rhythms that could be the first sign of Atrial fibrillation. This year’s Apple Watch, the Series 6 model, is expected to be unveiled later today and could include a pulse oximeter. The latter measures the percentage of oxygen in a person’s red blood cells. The data can reveal how well a heart is pumping blood, and it can even provide an early warning of a COVID-19 infection.

All of these features are designed to save a user’s life, and yet it wasn’t a health-related Apple Watch feature that managed to save the life of a police officer who was stabbed in Arizona on Friday. A video posted on Facebook this past Friday discusses an incident that took place in February when Sgt. Sosa of the Superior Police Department was trying to place a wanted felon under arrest. Sosa caught up with the suspect but had a problem wrangling him to the ground. But while this was going on, the officer’s microphone accidentally disconnected; focused on keeping the suspect on the ground, Sosa was unable to communicate with the dispatcher.

The dispatcher was unable to raise the officer on his radio, so she placed a call to Sosa which he was able to answer only because of his Apple Watch. The Sgt. was then able to get the dispatcher to call for back up. And it was a good thing too because the suspect managed to pull a knife out of his pocket and stab the officer in the leg. Still connected to dispatch via his Apple Watch, he was able to get an ambulance sent to his location. The dispatcher, Gloria Wheeler, received an award for saving Sgt. Sosa’s life. “The dispatcher saved my life because I was able to continue fighting, and she was able to send resources I needed out there,” he said.

But the Apple Watch was also a key part of this story. Without the dispatcher’s ability to get in touch with the cop, the officer might not have survived the attack. Chalk up another life that might have been saved by the Apple Watch.