It’s called a “smart” watch for a reason!
While many kids may claim they can’t live without the latest tech gadgets, for 13-year-old Austin Hardison, it was actually true.
Only, he had absolutely no idea that the smartwatch he got for Christmas was about to save his life!
Austin was just sitting on the couch channel surfing one day when his smartwatch alerted him to something unusual for a kid his age.
His heart rate was nearly off the charts!
“I started feeling light-headed and I looked down at my heart rate and it said 219.”
If you’ve ever done a lick of cardio in your life, then you know that your maximum heart rate is calculated by taking the number 220 and subtracting your age. For a 13-year-old, that means the max is 207 beats per minute, which is usually only achieved with intense physical activity.
Austin should never see a number that high unless he’s being chased by a lion!
It doesn’t take a math genius to see what sort of dangerous rabbit hole this was leading to. This unlucky teenager was just a couple of beats away from…well, use your imagination.
According to the American Heart Association, a normal resting heart rate is somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute.
Generally speaking, the lower your resting heart rate, the better.
If it’s too low, you can die. If it’s too high, you can die. Thankfully, there’s a very large middle ground we get to work with. But this is definitely one of those times where being totally average is a good thing!
Things like stress, hormones, and medications can certainly affect how quickly your heart thumps in your chest.
But, the only people who should ever know what 219 beats feel like are highly-conditioned elite athletes doing a ride or die at the Olympics!
Austin was no such elite athlete…unless you think flipping through channels with lightning-fast speed is a competitive sport.
Not knowing what to make of the alarming number that was flashing on his watch, Austin decided to show his mother what was going on.
At first, his mom thought it was just a glitch.
After all, how could anyone still be standing upright with an elevated heart rate like that?
Moms are natural-born worrywarts, but Lynsey Hardison remembers that she was actually a bit skeptical when her son told her his heart was racing uncontrollably.
With the fall school semester coming up, she initially thought it was just a product of anxiety.
“I knew school was starting next week and he was getting a little anxious for that and I thought maybe it’s just anxiety.”
Still, she was concerned, and just to be safe she took her son to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. That when Austin found out he had a very rare heart condition!
“He had a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome and he was actually born with it and just we were never aware of it.”
According to MedLine, Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome is a common cause of a rapid heart rate (tachycardia) in infants and children.
And to think…Austin originally wanted a smartwatch because all his friends had one.
Check out the video below to see how a smartwatch saved a boy’s life!
Who knows, it might even convince you to put one of these handy gadgets on your Christmas wish list this year.
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