<p>In an unusual incident, a fitness tracker ended up saving the life of a 73-year-old woman with large blood clots in her lungs - by indicating a spike in heart rate which allowed her to call for help in time.<br /><br />Patricia Lauder from the US bought a wearabale fitness tracker hoping to improve her health and lose weight.<br /><br />"I wasn't feeling well for a few weeks, and thought I might be battling a bad cold or walking pneumonia that I just couldn't kick," said Lauder.<br /><br />However, all her tests came back negative for pneumonia or any other health issues.<br />She started to experience shortness of breath and fatigue, while walking even very short distances in her own home.<br /><br />She noticed that her device was recording a rise in her usual resting heart rate of 68-70 beats per minute by five points a day. Then one day her heart rate spiked to 140 beats per minute.<br /><br />Lauder called the ambulance, and was taken to the University of Connecticut's John Dempsey Hospital in the US. A CT Scan showed that she was suffering from two large blood clots in her lung arteries.<br /><br />These clots, known as pulmonary embolisms, were causing her lungs and heart to be stressed and over-pressurised.<br /><br />Her lung artery pressure spiked to 65, when 25 is normal, while her heart was over-working and had become enlarged.<br /><br />The mortality rate of a pulmonary embolism is over 30 per cent when it is massive, said JuYong Lee, who treated Lauder.<br /><br />These risky lung blood clots can over-pressurise the heart, leading the body's blood pressure and oxygen level to drop significantly.<br /><br />The biggest risk factor for developing a pulmonary embolism is deep vein thrombosis, when a blood clot forms in a vein, most often in the leg, and can travel up to the lungs.<br /></p>
<p>In an unusual incident, a fitness tracker ended up saving the life of a 73-year-old woman with large blood clots in her lungs - by indicating a spike in heart rate which allowed her to call for help in time.<br /><br />Patricia Lauder from the US bought a wearabale fitness tracker hoping to improve her health and lose weight.<br /><br />"I wasn't feeling well for a few weeks, and thought I might be battling a bad cold or walking pneumonia that I just couldn't kick," said Lauder.<br /><br />However, all her tests came back negative for pneumonia or any other health issues.<br />She started to experience shortness of breath and fatigue, while walking even very short distances in her own home.<br /><br />She noticed that her device was recording a rise in her usual resting heart rate of 68-70 beats per minute by five points a day. Then one day her heart rate spiked to 140 beats per minute.<br /><br />Lauder called the ambulance, and was taken to the University of Connecticut's John Dempsey Hospital in the US. A CT Scan showed that she was suffering from two large blood clots in her lung arteries.<br /><br />These clots, known as pulmonary embolisms, were causing her lungs and heart to be stressed and over-pressurised.<br /><br />Her lung artery pressure spiked to 65, when 25 is normal, while her heart was over-working and had become enlarged.<br /><br />The mortality rate of a pulmonary embolism is over 30 per cent when it is massive, said JuYong Lee, who treated Lauder.<br /><br />These risky lung blood clots can over-pressurise the heart, leading the body's blood pressure and oxygen level to drop significantly.<br /><br />The biggest risk factor for developing a pulmonary embolism is deep vein thrombosis, when a blood clot forms in a vein, most often in the leg, and can travel up to the lungs.<br /></p>