Her 'vision was getting blurry' in apartment so she reached for her watch before passing out—it saved her life
Our body signals us about dangers around us and we need to take note of the same. Dismissing any signs or symptoms is not a smart move and Natalie Nasatka, a student from Delaware, was well aware of the same, per The Daily Mail. The young woman noticed her vision getting blurry and immediately figured something was wrong. In the nick of time, she reached out for her Apple Watch and took smart action to save herself. Her story is an example of why we need to be vigilant even when we’re at home. The woman woke up in the morning as usual but found herself excessively tired. She decided to cancel her appointments for the day due to the unusual exhaustion.
Assuming it to be fatigue, she decided to nap some more on her couch. However, when Nasatka woke up at noon, she felt worse. She started feeling dizzy and nothing was helping. She started losing consciousness and once her vision started to get blurry, she knew she had to do something urgently. In the spur of the moment, she grabbed her Apple watch and quickly called emergency services. The woman used the SOS feature on her watch and was able to get 911. It quickly sent her location to her emergency contacts. “I felt an eerie feeling of quickly falling asleep, and a wave of terror swept over me,” Nasatka said.
She added, “I used the SOS feature on my Apple Watch to connect with 911 dispatch. I told them that it was possibly CO poisoning and that I was too weak to move to get out of the house.” per CBS Philadelphia. Nasatka passed out on her bed soon after but luckily, first responders arrived to provide the necessary help in due time and save her life. “My survival instincts kicked in when I was at my weakest,” she recalled. The woman learned that she suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from a supposed gas leak in her home. "When I heard the firefighters yell out 'fire department' and they yanked me out of bed, I just started crying and saying 'I want to live. I want to live,'" the woman noted.
Dr. Lynn Farrugia, an emergency department physician, explained why carbon monoxide can be dangerous. "It is a lack of oxygen that affects the body. Certain things become irreversible, the heart can be damaged. Once the brain has been without oxygen for too long, there can be irreversible symptoms," the physician noted. "The carbon monoxide was confirmed because the fire department monitor read 80 parts per million in the apartment, which is extremely high," Nasatka said.
Along with the resident, her pet cat was also trapped in the house but was successfully saved. The woman is glad to be alive after suffering the reportedly fatal poisoning. Nasatka had a few after-effects like palpitations, heartburns, and so on but was lucky to have not suffered brain damage. She urges people to be aware of carbon monoxide and other poisonous emissions or dangers. Experts suggest having smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors to avoid such scenarios.