Setting up Fall Detection in the Apple Watch
A Roswell man credits his Apple Watch with saving his life, helping him call for assistance when he had a nasty fall while walking his dog in April.
Mike Menand hiked in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area with his two dogs in April, but ended up having a serious accident. While on a trail, his dogs suddenly took off, causing him to fall.
“They got spooked and knocked me down and dragged me off the trail,” Menand told Fox5. He quickly realized he “couldn’t move,” and was in a “lot of pain” from the impact. “There’s no telling how long I would’ve been laying there.”
Luckily, the Fall Detection feature of his Apple Watch determined there was an issue and helped him call for an ambulance.
“Once the call was made to 911, they stayed on with me until emergency services showed up,” Menand recounts. He believes the Apple Watch was his only chance to get immediate help, as he couldn’t access the iPhone in his pocket, since he was lying on top of it.
Eight months later, Menand has a titanium rod in his leg, a reminder of the incident. However, things could’ve turned out far worse, as a 46-year-old woman did not survive a fall in the same park one month later.
“When I read that, I thought that could’ve been me,” Menand believes. “Because I was by myself, no-one around me, no-one really knew where I was.”
As well as thanking EMTs and Roswell Fire Department, Menand also wrote and thanked Apple CEO Tim Cook, which led to the interview.
The Apple Watch has frequently helped people in incidents where life was at risk. For example, the case of a Las Vegas man being saved after falling unconscious from low blood sugar in November, aided by Fall Detection on his Apple Watch Ultra.
AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger was also helped by the Apple Watch, with Crash Detection calling for an ambulance following a scooter accident in a secluded area.
