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Apple Watch saves man’s life after he falls down cliff

A 28-year-old male from Delaware in the US is giving his Apple Watch full credit for still being alive.

James Prudenciano and Paige Paruso went hiking in a 736-acre county park in New Jersey a few days ago. They somehow managed to lose their way in the woods, and eventually landed up on a steep cliff.

Once it started to get dark, they made a decision: they would slide down the cliff in the hope of landing on firm ground.

That’s when they found out that there was nothing else beneath them than rocks and the water of the Navesink River.

Prudenciano said that they eventually reached the bottom of the cliff, but when he looked down, he could only see a vertical drop to the water and rocks far below.

They hung on for dear life, but he didn’t believe they would survive. His partner subsequently fell into the river and shouted that she was injured but alive.

At this stage, Prudenciano was shouting that he was about to die, because he firmly believed it to be the case. In the end, he couldn’t hold on any longer and also dropped to the river far below.

He was unfortunate enough to land on a rock, suffering several fractures in his back and some less serious scratches. In the process, a couple of thorns also got embedded in his foot.

This is when his Apple Watch decided that enough was enough: its sensors picked up a ‘hard fall’ and dialled 911. According to Prudenciano’s mother, she got three SMS messages informing her about the emergency.

Local police said that the two victims were transferred to a passing boat during the rescue operation.

They were then taken to a pier, and from there they were transported to the medical centre at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University where their injuries were treated.

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About the author

Chris

I've been a passionate evangelist for Apple and the Macintosh throughout my working life, my first love was a Quadra 605 working with a small creative agency in the south of Norfolk UK in the mid 1990's, I later progressed to other roles in other Macintosh dominated industries, first as a Senior graphic designer at a small printing company and then a production manager at Guardian Media Group. As the publishing and printing sector wained I moved into Internet Marketing and in 2006 co-founded blurtit.com which grew to become one the top 200 visited sites in the US (according to Quantcast), at its peak receiving over 15 million visits per month. For the last ten years I have worked as an Affiliate and Consultant to many different business and start ups, my key skill set being online marketing, on page monetisation, landing page optimisation and traffic generation, if you would like to hire me or discuss your current project please reach out to me here.

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