A Cincinnati man says that if the fall detection feature of Apple Watch hadn't called 911, he would have died from undiagnosed blood clotting.
Back in 2023, it was the Apple Watch heart rate monitor that saved a Cincinnati woman's life by alerting her to a dangerous condition. Now the device's fall detection has done the same for Mohammad Islam in the city, according to local station WKRC.
Islam was at home and taking out the trash when he said he turned around and "just collapsed."
"I don't know how long I was there," he continued. "Suddenly my eyes opened up and I was on the ground and sweating like crazy."
"I tried to get up, but couldn't. There was a chair so I held it…," he said. "Then I heard the sirens coming."
Emergency medics took him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where he has been diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs. The cause has not yet been identified, but he has been sent home with medication.
The Apple Watch he wore was given to him by his daughters, and even before the incident, they reportedly pressed him about wearing it. "[Also they] gave a gift to their mother… an Apple Watch," said Islam, "and every day they call me, they say 'Are you wearing your Apple Watch?'"
"They're overjoyed that their gift saved me," he said.
Islam had not intentionally turned on the fall detection feature, but he is aged over 55, so it was enabled automatically. He says that he was aware of it because of getting occasional false alarms, but he did not know the extent of what the feature can do.
"Because when I work in the yard or something and I bang my hand, it says, 'Hey, did you fall down? Should we call SOS or something?'" he said. "So, it was in the back of my mind, but I did not know that it was going to call 911."
Apple and just about every smartwatch maker is currently being sued over fall detection and an allegation that it infringes on patents owned by UnaliWear. But in the meantime, it has directly saved countless lives since its introduction with the Apple Watch Series 4 back in 2018.
At times, that detection has been when the wearer has been involved in a car crash and the Apple Watch messaged the driver's family. It's helped injured mountaineers, too.
Then across its multiple health features, the Apple Watch has also alerted many users to conditions that, if not immediately life-threatening, were extremely series. It was AppleInsider managing editor Mike Wuerthele's Apple Watch that warned him about a potential atrial fibrillation after his daughter's passing.
It's events like these that Tim Cook has said he is most proud of from his time as CEO.
"I remember getting the very first Apple Watch note from a user who told me that the watch saved their life," he said in April 2026. "Now, of course, I get these on a daily basis, but that first one hit me particularly hard. It caused me to just stop in my steps.
