CINCINNATI — Little did 83-year-old William Fryer know that a fall in the middle of his walk would save his life.
In February, Fryer walked his usual path along the Ohio River Trail but noticed his knees started to feel like rubber.
“I knew I was going to go down,” Fryer said.
He turned around, hoping if he fell someone would see him.
“I went down and the first thing I remember is rolling over on my back and the phone is wanting to know if they can call for an emergency,” he said.
Fryer's Apple Watch detected his fall and sent an SOS to emergency medical services. It also alerted his daughter and son-in-law to the fall.
While he doesn’t remember much after the fall, Fryer said he does remember seeing an off-duty Cincinnati police officer at his side.
“She held my arm and started talking to my watch,” Fryer said.
Paramedics arrived and examined Fryer, but they couldn’t determine why he fell.
“They finally said, 'We can’t find anything wrong. We can take you home or we can take you to the hospital,' and I said wait a minute let's talk about this a little further,” Fryer said.
He opted to go to Christ Hospital where he met Vascular and Interventional Radiologist Dr. Scott Tatum. He interprets MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays. An X-ray of Fryer’s chest showed he had a big blood clot.
“I made my way to the emergency room and when I saw him I was a little bit surprised because he was laying very comfortably,” Tatum said.
Tatum said Fryer had atypical blood clot symptoms. Some of the usual symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain and exercise intolerance. Fryer had none of those things. He noted his heart rate wasn’t abnormal and his blood pressure was in the acceptable range but a little low.
He started to ask Fryer questions about his medical history. Fryer showed him a year’s worth of information about his blood pressure and heart rate he keeps in a health tracking app on his phone.
“What I’m seeing in the hospital is clearly abnormal for him; even though it doesn’t look abnormal for like the entire population of the United States; even though his heart rate wasn’t above 100 it was still very clear it was an abnormal heart rate for him. I mean he was just sitting, he was sitting in the hospital bed relaxing, but his heart rate was probably double his normal heart rate,” Tatum said.
The information Fryer presented signaled to Tatum he needed to intervene. The following day, Tatum performed a procedure to remove the blood clot.
“Probably a foot long if it had been stretched out from end to end,” Tatum said.
“To me, it looked like half-strips of bacon. About the same length of a strip of bacon, but it was like it was cut in half the long way and they’re carrying it over holding it at both ends. I didn’t know blood could get that thick,” Fryer said.
Tatum said Fryer had a high-risk pulmonary embolism. The mortality rate can be up to 50% at 30 days.
Fryer said he’s grateful for his Apple Watch and is happy he can start walking again.
“I’m up walking every day if it’s nice,” said Fryer. “This is the easiest thing I can do to get some exercise.”
