Padres pitcher uses iPhone to self-diagnose appendicitis

You're a young pitcher for the San Diego Padres, it's early in the morning, and you're not feeling good. In fact, you feel awful. So what do you do? Pick up your iPhone, point Safari at WebMD.com, punch in your symptoms, and self-diagnose yourself as having appendicitis. Next step? You call the team trainer at 3:15 AM, who does a quick examination and tells you to get to the hospital ASAP. A few hours later, your appendix is gone via a laparoscopic appendectomy, and you're on the DL for a month or so.

It sounds like a script for a bad baseball movie, but it actually happened to Padres pitcher Tim Stauffer yesterday morning. He was able to take a taxi to a hospital in San Diego, where the staff confirmed his diagnosis and immediately scheduled him for surgery.

This isn't the first time an iPhone has helped someone save their own life -- in January, a survivor of the Haiti earthquake used several medical apps to keep himself alive while awaiting rescue.

It will be fun to see if Apple will be able to work this into an iPhone ad. "Self-diagnosing appendicitis? There's an app for that!"

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Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=5183…

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You're a young pitcher for the San Diego Padres, it's early in the morning, and you're not feeling good. In fact, you feel awful. So what...

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Carter

That was my friend Dan Woolley who used a first aid app to treat a gash in his league and the back of his head. 65 hours he was trapped in an elevator shaft in the Hotel Montana

May 15 2010 at 7:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nick

Being based in Cupertino, wouldn't Jobs be a Giants fan?

May 13 2010 at 12:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

LynchMob

Wow, he took a taxi to a hospital in San Diego? Wonder how much that cost ... given that he was in San Francisco when this happened!

http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100512&content_id=10002086&notebook_id=10005304&vkey=notebook_sd&fext=.jsp&c_id=sd

May 13 2010 at 10:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Doug

It is time for the grammar police to rear its ugly head!

You're a young pitcher for the San Diego Padres, it's early in the morning, and you're not feeling well.

FTFY!

May 13 2010 at 9:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

TIm

Reading stories like this I always wonder whether there is like DELL fan websites reporting every case where somebody successfully used a Dell computer to save somebody's life .. must be awfully crowded on those sites.

Seriously though. What did the iPhone really do here? Was is paralized and couldn't move to the next computer or call 911. I meant besides being a computer used to access a webservice, what part did the iPhone really play here.

That said .. baseball is boring .. go Bolts!.

T.

May 13 2010 at 4:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

junkeandyou

surprised to hear this .what a wonderful phone.the iphone should as well have scalpers and suturing gudget attched to it.

May 13 2010 at 2:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gregory Homyak

Another mention of the iPhone: http://bit.ly/9474DN

May 13 2010 at 2:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hey, I self-diagnosed my appendicitis the old fashioned way: From watching way too many years of ER and therefore repeatedly hearing the phrase "descending pain in the right lower quadrant."

To be fair, this was in 2003, so if it had happened this year, I probably would have used my iPhone to confirm my suspicions.

May 13 2010 at 1:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jdmidgley

Bravo for the iPhone & WebMD, bigger bravo for the trainers and physicians that actually diagnosed him.

May 13 2010 at 1:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

LOST CityStar

i submitted this story!!!!

May 12 2010 at 11:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply