NHS doctor saves woman's life mid-air using Apple Watch

The woman, in her 70s, experienced shortness of breath, and Dr Riaz saved her by borrowing the device from a flight attendant.

"The Apple Watch helped me find out the patient had low oxygen saturation," he was quoted as saying to BBC.

He said he discovered the woman had a history of heart issues, having spoken to her in her native Urdu, reassuring her husband when she initially did not respond to his queries.

"I used a lot of my own learning during this flight on how to use the gadget," Dr Riaz said. "It is a lesson in how we can improve in-flight journeys [with] this sort of emergency (via) a basic gadget which nowadays is easily available."

Apple recently announced that it will disable the pulse oximeter feature from the new Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watches because of a patent dispute with medical technology company Masim over the software. As per the Apple website, measurements taken with the Blood Oxygen app were not intended for medical use and are only designed for "general fitness and wellness purposes".