Man credits this Apple Watch feature for helping save his father

A man is crediting an Apple Watch feature for helping to save his father following a bicycle fall in Washington state. Gabe Burdett described in a Facebook post that he was on his way to meet his father, Bob, in Riverside State Park for mountain biking, but his dad didn’t arrive at their meet-up location.

While he was waiting, Burdett received a text from his father’s Apple Watch that read: “Emergency SOS Bob Burdett called emergency services from this approximate location after Apple Watch detected a hard fall.”

The watch alerted Burdett that it had called 911 with his father’s location. As he later found out, his father flipped his bike and hit his head, knocking him unconscious.

“He didn’t remember flipping his bike and he didn’t remember anything really happening until he was in the ambulance, and even then he was pretty out of it,” Gabe Burdett told CBS affiliate KREM.

An ambulance arrived and his father was transported to the hospital within 30 minutes of the fall. “It’s been an amazing tool. … You think of fall protection as something like falling off a ladder, but not for doing something you do all the time,” he said.

Bob got X-rays and a CT scan, and Gabe said he’s doing “great.” He urged Apple Watch users in his Facebook post to take full advantage of its features, especially fall detection.

“IF YOU OWN AN APPLE WATCH, set up your HARD FALL detection—it’s not just for when you fall off a roof or a ladder,” he wrote. “Had he fallen somewhere on the High Drive trails or another remote area, the location would have clued EMS in on where to find him. Amazing technology and so glad he had it!”