A woman who nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning is lucky to be alive after the SOS feature on her Apple Watch dialed emergency services.
Natalie Nasatka of Delaware said her “survival instincts kicked in” when she randomly woke up feeling weak, dizzy, and short of breath around 8 a.m. on Dec 29.
Feeling more off than usual when under the weather, the 40-year-old veteran decided to cancel plans for the day and head back to sleep.
But when Nasatka woke up on her couch around noon, the symptoms persisted and her vision started to become increasingly fuzzy.
“My survival instincts kicked in when I was at my weakest,” Nasatka told DM, realizing her health was in danger and she needed medical assistance.
Nasatka said she was too weak to look for her phone, so she held down the side button on her Apple Watch.
“I used the SOS feature on my Apple Watch to connect with 911 dispatch. I told them that it was possibly CO poisoning and that I was too weak to move to get out of the house,” Nasatka said.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that’s created by a burning of fuels. A person can be poisoned by carbon monoxide when it builds up in their blood.
Emergency services as well as firefighters responded immediately and rushed into Nasatka’s home, where they found the helpless woman barely conscious on her bed.
“When I heard the firefighters yell out ‘fire department’ and they yanked me out of bed, I just started crying and saying ‘I want to live. I want to live,’ ” she said to CBS.
Nasatka was rushed to an ambulance waiting outside for her and was given oxygen before arriving to the hospital.
A CT scan of Nasatka’s brain showed no signs of damage, and she was kept at Bayhealth Kent Campus hospital for 24 hours before being released.
“I’ve been riding waves of emotions,” Nasatka told CBS.
Nasatka’s said firefighters confirmed the cause of her health scare was from carbon monoxide.
The Delaware veteran says she overheard the fire department monitor “read 80 parts per million in the apartment, which is extremely high.”
Nasatka, who did not have a carbon monoxide detector, believes a heater in her apartment is where the gas started from.
She admitted to experiencing issues with the heater in her apartment for a month after getting it replaced, but maintenance in the building failed to give a reason as to why.
At least 420 people die in the US from accidental CO poisoning, according to the CDC. In 2022 alone, 1,244 people in the US died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
In 2023, the number of carbon monoxide deaths dropped to just 336.
Source link
#Apple #Watch #feature #saves #woman #passed #home #carbon #monoxide #poisoning