I was 43 and according to my £190 fitness tracker I was in perfect health… weeks later, I DIED from a heart attack and was brought back to life. I’m proof these gadgets CAN’T be relied on
While out for a routine run, Julian Davies suddenly felt tightness in his chest, forcing him to stop and go home.
Even though he was only 43 years old, he was the symbol of health; He was a gym regular, an avid outdoor swimmer, and a regular competitor in grueling ultramarathons.
His smartwatch, a £190 Hume Band fitness tracker he has been wearing for about five months, showed his cardiovascular fitness was excellent for his age.
A resting heart rate of around 50 has been noted, along with good sleep and normal heart rate variability.
However, within a few weeks his health began to deteriorate. Mr Davies, managing director Cannaray Health The man, from Surrey, continued to complain of chest pain and extreme fatigue. While he dismissed the symptoms as stress, aging or indigestion, his fitness tracker showed his heart rate was normal.
Then, on January 28, while he was at the pharmacy, he developed crushing pressure on his chest and thought he might pass out; He later described the feeling as ‘like being in a washing machine, being thrown around’.
He managed to get home while calling an ambulance, but collapsed in the driveway a few minutes later.
‘My partner came out, accepted the call and woke me up. “That’s when I realized I was going to die,” he said.
When he arrived at the hospital the next morning, doctors told him he had suffered a massive heart attack.
Julian Davies, 43, relied on his fitness tracker to flag any problems. Instead he was said to have had a ‘great night’s sleep’ as doctors diagnosed a massive heart attack
Mr. Davies (second R) was the epitome of health; He was a regular at the gym, ran ultramarathons, and swam outdoors.
‘The most ironic thing was that when I finally came to and looked at my watch, it told me I had a good night’s sleep and everything was normal,’ he says.
In reality, blood tests revealed his troponin, an important marker released when the heart is damaged, was ‘off scale’, while scans showed his heart was not working properly.
He underwent an emergency procedure in which a wire was passed from an artery in his wrist to his heart so doctors could ‘remove’ a blockage and open his coronary artery using small balloons.
It was only at the hospital that doctors announced that he had probably had several small heart attacks in the weeks before the major heart attack; These crises were events that his smart watch could not detect.
Hume Band markets itself as a consumer health and longevity wearable device that provides ‘medical-grade insights’
While many modern fitness trackers now feature blood pressure monitoring and single-lead ECGs, experts warn that these features are no substitute for proper medical testing.
Devices like the Hume Band 2.0 use light-based sensors (known as PPG) to estimate blood pressure trends and monitor heart rate variability. They can give a useful snapshot of your health; but readings are not always perfect and occasional spikes or errors are not uncommon.
Some wearable devices also include a single-lead ECG designed to detect irregular heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation. However, results can be affected by how the device is worn and even slight movements during use. They can also flag harmless extra heartbeats that can be misleading.
Most importantly, these simplified ECGs are much less detailed than the 12-lead versions used in hospitals; This means they may not provide the same level of accuracy or diagnosis.
Although devices like the Hume Band can detect irregular patterns and send alerts, they cannot detect and diagnose serious conditions such as heart attacks. They were designed as wellness tools, not life-saving medical devices.
The Hume Health website claims: ‘Hume combines each biomarker into one clear picture; so nothing slips through the cracks and nothing sneaks up on you.’
Consultant cardiologist Dr Malcolm Finlay said: ‘These fitness trackers are designed as general health tools and they can be very good at detecting things, particularly abnormal heart rhythms.
‘More advanced devices that include ECG functions are much better than basic trackers that just measure pulse. Even simpler devices can sometimes detect irregular heartbeats, which is helpful.
‘But they are much less successful at detecting life-threatening problems such as blocked coronary arteries or cardiac arrest. This is partly because they are small wrist-worn devices, so the amount of data they can collect is relatively limited.
‘They are excellent aids for monitoring health and fitness, but they cannot be relied upon to give complete reassurance.
‘If you feel good and it matches what your follower is telling you, that’s reassuring. However, it is important to seek medical help if you do not feel well.
‘The bottom line is that you should trust your instincts and not ignore symptoms just because your device tells you everything is normal.’
For Mr Davies, the consequences of the heart attack were psychological as well as physical.
‘As a healthy 43-year-old, I was deeply ashamed that this had happened,’ he admits. ‘I felt weak; ‘Everything I don’t like feeling.’
At first he could barely walk ten metres, and found the idea of traveling to and from London ‘terrible’.
He believed that if someone brushed against him in the crowded subways, ‘my heart would explode’.
He was also the youngest person in an NHS cardiac rehabilitation class for nearly 30 years; It was an isolating experience that led her to start an Instagram blog. Mending Hearts Clubto document his recovery and connect with other young heart patients.
Mr Davies is now using both his professional expertise and his own near-death experience to warn others against being lulled into a false sense of security by ‘good’ wearable data.
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‘Wearable devices are interesting and possibly useful for some people, but they only give a very shallow picture of your overall health,’ he says. ‘A wearable device is not enough to prove or guarantee health.’
Instead, he urges people, especially young and healthy people, to take persistent symptoms seriously and seek appropriate medical check-ups.
‘If I had my time again, I would have my bloods done and talk to someone about them,’ she says. ‘A blood test can’t lie. If you test the right panels and have them reviewed by a clinician, you’ll get a much clearer diagnostic picture.’
His hope is that by speaking out he can help others spot problems sooner than he does.
‘On paper I wasn’t supposed to have a heart attack, but it still happened,’ he says.
‘I just want people to take their health seriously; Don’t wait until it’s almost too late.’
Mr Davies’ story follows a new escalation in the debate about ‘optimization culture’.
The debate about people relying on smart devices to track their health metrics intensified after Dragon’s Den star Steven Bartlett claimed that just two glasses of wine ‘ruined’ his sleep, motivation and performance for three days, based on data from his Whoop device.
With one in three Britons now using wearable devices to track heart rate, sleep and stress, experts warn the technology could be a double-edged sword.
Celebrities and broadcasters have spoken out against the so-called ‘optimization culture’, while psychotherapist Katerina Georgiou says focusing on metrics risks turning personal development into a ‘prison’.
Hume’s representatives were approached for comment.
