By Nikki, Senior Science Reporter for Dailymail.Com
22:39 on January 3, 2024, updated on January 3, 2024 at 23:02
A Delaware woman is alive after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning thanks to the SOS function on her Apple Watch.
Natalie Nasatka was at home the morning of December 29 when she started feeling dizzy and her vision became blurry – but a quick reaction likely saved her life.
She pressed the side button on her Apple Watch to contact emergency services just before losing consciousness.
Nasatka has activated the SOS function which at first presents an emergency call slider that the user can activate, but after a countdown, the watch automatically dialed 911 and sent a text message with the person’s location to each emergency contact on the phone.
Firefighters and emergency responders rushed to Nasatka’s home in Smyrna, Delaware, where they found her passed out in her bed.
They dragged her from her bed to the waiting ambulance and revived her with oxygen before taking her to a nearby hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning – and she was back home with her cat on New Year’s Day.
“I started feeling weak and dizzy and my vision was getting blurry,” Nasatka told ABC6 News.
“I was too weak to try to find my phone, so I used my Apple Watch and held the side button.”
Nasatka told CBS News that she regained consciousness when she heard firefighters rushing into the apartment.
“When I heard the firefighters shouting ‘firemen’ and they pulled me out of bed, I just started crying and saying ‘I want to live.’ I want to live,” Nasatka told the outlet.
Her cat, Mary Kate, was hiding in an upstairs room, so first responders opened a window to let in fresh air and closed the bedroom door.
Nasatka spent nearly 24 hours in the hospital before being released on New Year’s Eve, and she told ABC6 that since her collapse, she has been dealing with a roller coaster of emotions.
“Definitely waves of emotions, knowing how close I could have been to death,” Nasatka told the outlet.
“Of course my first kiss in the New Year was my cat. I got her back, I’ve been saying it since I got home, whatever our purpose here on earth is, it’s not done yet” , she added.
Nasatka told CBS she thought the gas leak was coming from the radiator and said she did not have a CO2 detector at the time of the incident.
She said “the presence of carbon monoxide was confirmed because the fire monitor recorded a level of 80 parts per million in the apartment, which is extremely high.”
Nasatka could not be reached for comment and the Smyrna Fire Department did not immediately respond to Dailymail.com’s request for additional information.
Carbon monoxide poisoning kills at least 420 people each year in the United States, and more than 100,000 people are rushed to emergency rooms following accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC).
These numbers are at their highest in winter, when home heating systems are running continuously and, if not properly maintained, can produce fumes from furnaces, kerosene heaters, gas heaters. , portable generators, etc.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, dizziness, nausea, weakness, chest pain and confusion, but people who have drunk alcohol can die from CO2 poisoning even before showing symptoms.
The CDC suggests changing the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector every six months, maintaining your heating system, water heater, and other gas appliances annually, and not letting your vehicle run in an open space. closed.