A father has credited a ‘smart sock’ with potentially saving his infant son’s life, after alerting him and his wife to their little one’s heart issue.
Ryan Nicholas Golinski took to Facebook to share the merits of the Owlet Smart Sock, a device which monitors your baby’s oxygen levels and heart rate as they sleep. It was designed with the intention of helping to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.
Recalling the ‘scary’ events of the night before, Ryan explained exactly why the $300 shelled out on the Owlet Smart Sock was the best money he ever spent.
“So, last night around 3am, the sock started alarming us that something was wrong, which we thought was a false alarm because it said his heart rate was reading 286,” he began.
“But three resets later, and it was still reading extremely high for an infant.”
Ryan and his wife, Kate, decided to head to the hospital, just in case – and it turned out to be the right thing to do.
It turns out that their little one is suffering from a condition called Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT), which occurs where the heart beats too fast. It is said to be caused by faulty electrical signals in the heart.
“We have spent the last 24+ hours at the hospital for something called SVT, and we caught it before any side-effects,” explained Ryan.
“So, everything is going well now, and his heart is still extremely healthy.
“If we didn’t catch it as early as we did with that sock, his heart wouldn’t have been able to handle it, and we could be dealing with something a lot more serious.”
Ryan’s post has since gone viral, garnering thousands of shares across the internet.
While most people have simply been sending on loving and supportive messages to the family, many others have been enquiring after the Owlet Smart Sock.
“Really happy you guys caught it so early. I was knocking on the overpriced gadgets, but I’m really, really happy you had it,” wrote one commenter.
Ryan went on to describe the gadget as the ‘best investment he ever made’.
Thank heavens this precious little one is OK.
