A Bed Just Saved This Man’s Life. Here’s How

If ever a bed deserved a five-star review, it’s this one. In a recent case report, doctors describe how a smart bed’s monitoring saved a 70-year-old man from almost certain doom.

James Ip, a cardiologist at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York–Presbyterian Hospital, detailed the strange tale in the New England Journal of Medicine over the weekend. The man’s bed alerted him that he had an unusually slow heartbeat, prompting a trip to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with a life-threatening complete heart block. Thankfully, doctors successfully treated his condition with a pacemaker.

“These direct-to-consumer devices have ushered in a new era of medicine when patients are now empowered to help diagnose their arrhythmias,†Ip told Gizmodo in an email.

The life-saving bed

According to the report, the man visited the ER a few hours into having a slow heart rate, also known as bradycardia, and shortness of breath. The normal range of a resting heartbeat is around 60 to 100 beats per minute, while severe bradycardia starts happening below 40 beats per minute.

Earlier that day, the man’s bed warned him that his average heart rate the night before (42 beats per minute) was much slower than usual (78 beats per minute). The man confirmed the bed’s heartbeat reading with a smartwatch and a home blood pressure machine. After he started to feel out of breath, he phoned his doctor about his symptoms, who told him to immediately seek emergency care.

Once there, doctors once again confirmed his bradycardia, and an electrocardiogram (ECG) test revealed that he had a complete heart block. The condition, also known as a third-degree heart block, happens when the electrical signals from the heart’s upper chambers (the atria) are completely blocked from reaching the lower chamber (the ventricles). This blockage causes the two parts of the heart to beat independently of each other, resulting in a slow heart rate. If left untreated, this bradycardia can then lead to a fatal cardiac arrest or heart failure.

Fortunately, the man sought medical care in time. He was outfitted with a dual-chamber leadless pacemaker, a standard treatment for a complete heart block, after which his symptoms disappeared.

The future of heart monitoring

The smart bed detected the man’s bradycardia via ballistocardiography (BCG), which uses the body’s subtle movements to estimate heart rate. In this case, the bed was certainly right to be worried about the man’s heart.

“Although asymptomatic bradycardia during sleep is common, the sudden occurrence of unexpected, symptomatic bradycardia warrants evaluation, especially with confirmatory electrocardiography,†Ip wrote in his report.

BCG monitoring is a feature that’s increasingly being added to consumer products like beds and wearables. And while you probably shouldn’t rely on your bed or wearables in general alone to diagnose any medical problems, this sort of technology can act as an early warning signal to bring up with your doctor.

“Increasing awareness of these tools can help patients and clinicians manage cardiac arrhythmias based on wearable-directed medical care,†Ip said.

Boy, if I were that man, I wouldn’t ever throw out that bed.