Posted on 02/03/2023 5:45:11 PM PST by grundle
911 dispatchers are buried under an avalanche of false, automated distress calls from skiers and other Apple device owners who are very much alive.
“Do you have an emergency?” Mr. Betts asked. No, the man said, he was skiing — safely, happily, unharmed. Slightly annoyed, he added, “For the last three days, my watch has been dialing 911.”
Winter has brought a decent amount of snowfall to the region’s ski resorts, and with it an avalanche of false emergency calls. Virtually all of them have been placed by Apple Watches or iPhone 14s under the mistaken impression that their owners have been debilitated in collisions.
Lately, emergency call centers in some ski regions have been inundated with inadvertent, automated calls, dozens or more a week. Phone operators often must put other calls, including real emergencies, on hold to clarify whether the latest siren has been prompted by a human at risk or an overzealous device.
“My whole day is managing crash notifications,” said Trina Dummer, interim director of Summit County’s emergency services, which received 185 such calls in the week from Jan. 13 to Jan. 22. (In winters past, the typical call volume on a busy day was roughly half that.) Ms. Dummer said that the onslaught was threatening to desensitize dispatchers and divert limited resources from true emergencies.
“Apple needs to put in their own call center if this is a feature they want,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at web.archive.org ...
Yesterday I repeatedly pounded something against the kitchen sink. A few minutes later, my Apple Watch vibrated and showed this message: “You appear to have had a hard fall. Do you want to call 9-1-1?”
This is why I have an old-fashioned pocket watch. At least with no “smart technology” in it, I know it’s not tracking me.
One of my good friends got a notice from his Apple Watch telling him he was in defib. Told him to go to the nearest hospital as soon as possible, which he did. Left immediately. He had a heart attack on the way to the hospital (a ten minute drive) and had a quintuple bypass procedure. Saved his life for what it’s worth m
Kind of makes sense that they wouldn’t publicize these features.
My mom got a text that she had an intruder. She was on the Ring. It was from 4 miles away from her property.
I had to go over...with a pistol....to check on her.
I knew some time ago that Ring devices were hooking up without accepting.
” At least with no “smart technology” in it, I know it’s not tracking me.”
That alone makes the watch worth much much more than the most expensive smart watch.
I bought it for $27.95 at the Yorktown battlefield museum gift shop last summer. A good price, and stylish.
Cardiovascular doctors have been getting emergency calls from people who bought the smart watches that include an ECG meter. There watch has a camera that faces the wrist and measures fluctuations in the blood flow to determine if the wearer is experiencing an atrial fibrillation of the heart.
This can be serious in patients with other co-factors that cause blood clots and embolisms. The problem is that about 1% of the population have atrial fibrillations that are harmless. This natural disease prevalence means that about 85% of the events detected by the watch are false positives. People don’t understand this and are panicking. They end up making emergency doctor’s visits and even being prescribed blood thinners based on a false positive.
“Cardiovascular doctors have been getting emergency calls from people who bought the smart watches that include an ECG meter. There watch has a camera that faces the wrist and measures fluctuations in the blood flow to determine if the wearer is experiencing an atrial fibrillation of the heart.
This can be serious in patients with other co-factors that cause blood clots and embolisms. The problem is that about 1% of the population have atrial fibrillations that are harmless. This natural disease prevalence means that about 85% of the events detected by the watch are false positives. People don’t understand this and are panicking. They end up making emergency doctor’s visits and even being prescribed blood thinners based on a false positive”
Instead of blood thinners they should consider spike sponges
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.