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Towards the end of 'Stranger Than Fiction', Harold is struck by a bus and his life is saved by his wrist-watch.

The scenario I'm considering doesn't exactly have to be a pedestrian-bus collision (pedestrian-car or car-car will suffice) but I'm curious as to medically speaking, how can a wrist-watch save someone's life?

At first glance, this seems nearly impossible as a wrist holds no vital organs (the only thing I can think of is bleeding to death and the watch's tight grip prevents one from bleeding out - and even that, I'm not entirely sure if it's a realistic scenario) but considering how collisions almost always split-second, how can a watch save someone's life?

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    $\begingroup$ In the absense of any details about the wristwatch in question, I'm wondering whether it might have been made by the same horologist who supplied this gentleman. $\endgroup$ – Starfish Prime Jan 9 at 22:11
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    $\begingroup$ Usually that means that they pause in their stride to look a their watch, missing death by inches, or that they are struck differently due to their changed body orientation, position, or location as they slow and/or bend to look at their wristwatch or pocket-watch instead of looking at where they are going. I don't really see the relevance of this question to worldbuilding, though. $\endgroup$ – user535733 Jan 9 at 22:12
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    $\begingroup$ This seems more like a riddle-building question than a world-building question. $\endgroup$ – Roger Jan 9 at 22:27
  • $\begingroup$ Assuming the car has Lidar and it senses imminent collision, the watch can read these data and advice the user or in a worst case scenario take over control of the vehicle... ethical issue aside of course. $\endgroup$ – user6760 Jan 10 at 0:32
  • $\begingroup$ This also happens in an episode of Fairly Odd Parents. I never knew it was riffing off of an existing movie. $\endgroup$ – F1Krazy Jan 10 at 9:37
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He has a health-monitoring smartwatch. After the accident, smartwatch detected a major issue with Harold's health. It sent a message to ambulance service, which arrived just in time to save Harold's life.

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If I remember the movie correctly, the implication was that the wristwatch shattered in such a way that a piece of it lodged in a vital artery supplying blood to his injuries, blocking the artery and therefore keeping him from bleeding out. The event occurring despite the sheer improbability of something like this ever happening in the history of humanity is explained by way of it being literal author fiat.

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Since I own a smartwatch, the answer is easy. You can configure an emergency call function on that watch. If you press the menu button twice, it will call a predefined list of numbers.

So if your character is somehow trapped and can't reach his smartphone, he can still call emergency with his watch.

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A smart watch could monitor vital signs like heart rate, oxygen levels or blood sugar. It could alert the user, call an ambulance and provide that information to medical personnel. It could even automatically inject drugs such as clotting agents, epinephrine, glucose etc. as required.

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