When Joseph Holycross came home from work feeling off, he had plenty of reasons to brush it aside.
asserted
he → come → it
He was a busy father of four, worked long hours and had grown accustomed to blaming a racing heart on caffeine and exhaustion.
asserted
He → work → caffeine
His wife, Jamie, saw something that worried her.
asserted
that → see → her
She urged Joseph to use the ECG feature on his Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic.
asserted
She → urge → Classic
Seconds later, the result gave him a reason to stop making excuses and head to the emergency room.
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result → give → room
What doctors discovered would lead to a week in the hospital, open-heart surgery and new health concerns for Joseph's family.
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discovered → discover → family
It also completely changed the way he looks at the smartwatch on his wrist.
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he → change → wrist
Watch the replay and discover 5 ways AI can help you get better healthcare.
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you → watch → healthcare
Our free CyberGuy LIVE class Get Better Healthcare With AI has ended, but you can still watch the full replay.
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you → get → replay
Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson walks you through five practical ways AI can help you prepare for appointments, remember important details, understand complicated medical information, research prescription questions and organize your next steps.
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you → walk → steps
No technical experience is needed.
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experience → need → ?
Plus, recordings of all our past classes are available, including How to Stop Spam, Phone Security and Financial Protection, each with a free downloadable checklist.
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recordings → include → checklist
Watch the free replays and get your checklists at CyberGuyLive.com
Joseph thought his racing heart had an explanation
Joseph says the elevated heart rate had been happening on and off for roughly a year and a half to two years.
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rate → watch → year
At the time, just weeks before his 40th birthday, he did not see it as a warning sign.
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he → see → sign
"I tend to fuel with caffeine.
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I → tend → caffeine
I'm a father of four, so, you know, we tend to drink coffee and things like that when we're tired to kind of push through the day," Joseph told CyberGuy.
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Joseph → know → CyberGuy
That made the symptoms easier to explain away.
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symptoms → make → ?
If his heart was racing, Joseph could point to coffee, exercise or a long day and keep going.
uncertain
Joseph → race → coffee
Then Jamie noticed something different.
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Jamie → notice → something
"She had made the comment that I looked like I was short of breath, like I was breathing strangely," Joseph recalled.
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Joseph → make → breath
Jamie works as a respiratory therapist, so her concern carried weight.
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concern → work → weight
This time, Joseph agreed to check his heart with the ECG feature on his Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic.
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Joseph → agree → Classic
His Galaxy Watch showed AFib
Joseph had owned his Galaxy Watch4 Classic for about three years.
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Joseph → show → years
Before this happened, health monitoring was hardly the reason he wore it.
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he → happen → it
He mainly liked being able to receive messages or answer calls while he worked without carrying his phone around the shop.
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he → like → shop
He had tried the ECG feature perhaps once about a year earlier, mostly to see what the watch could do.
uncertain
watch → try → what
Joseph scrolled to the ECG feature, tapped the option to record and followed the directions on the screen.
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Joseph → scroll → screen
He says the watch instructed him to remain still and keep his finger on the sensor while it recorded for about 30 seconds.
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it → say → seconds
"It came up and told me immediately at the top in bold letters, atrial fibrillation," Joseph said.
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Joseph → come → fibrillation
"Denial," Joseph said.
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Joseph → say → ?
"I just thought it had to be a malfunction.
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it → think → ?
He wondered whether the watch could be wrong, especially because it was an older model.
uncertain
it → wonder → ?
So he ran the ECG again and then repeated it several more times.
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he → run → it
Jamie was not interested in continuing to test it at home.
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Jamie → continue → home
Joseph recalls her telling him, "We need to go to the ER and have an actual EKG done just to make sure.
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EKG → recall → ER
The watch changed Joseph's mind about going to the ER
When I asked Joseph whether he would have gone to the emergency room that day without the watch, he did not hesitate.
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he → change → watch
"Nope," he said.
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he → say → ?
That answer gets to the heart of this story.
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answer → get → story
The Galaxy Watch did not determine everything that was happening inside Joseph's heart.
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that → determine → heart
It gave him information that made his symptoms much harder to dismiss.
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symptoms → give → information
…and 86 more, not listed.
The Aporia
