I Thought I Just Had the Flu. Then I Went Into Cardiac Arrest

At age 39, I had two open-heart surgeries in less than a year.

September 12, 2024

Loree Benigni with her two sons posing for a picture while sitting down.

Loree Benigni, of Pennsylvania, was just 39 when she came back from vacation with what she thought was a case of the flu. After she developed a shortness of breath that wouldn’t get better, she went from urgent care to the emergency room, where she went into cardiac arrest. Now 41, she wants more people to know what she didn’t—that viral infections like the flu can sometimes trigger heart problems, even in young, healthy people. Here’s her story, as told to senior health writer Katie Camero.

To celebrate our 15-year wedding anniversary in 2022, my husband and I went to North Carolina to go hiking. We were almost at the top of the mountain we were climbing when I noticed how out of breath I was. I kind of brushed it off because I thought, well, I was climbing a mountain and I wasn’t really used to doing that. But when we got home a couple days later, I started feeling flu-like symptoms. I was achy and tired, but more than anything, I was still out of breath. Daily chores, and even brushing my teeth, winded me so much that I would have to sit down. I immediately knew something was wrong.

I took a bunch of COVID tests but they all came back negative, so I decided to go to urgent care. When I got there, the doctor told me my heart rate was really high and that they suspected I could have a blood clot, so I was advised to go to the emergency room. My husband immediately drove me to the hospital, and in the waiting room, I noticed it was becoming even harder to breathe through my face mask. I was called to the front desk to complete my registration, at which point a nurse took my temperature and everything took a turn for the worse. I started to vomit, so they wheeled me to the back to do scans of my heart. Shortly after that, I blacked out.

I later learned that I went into cardiac arrest (when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating). I woke up two days later at a different hospital, which was able to offer the more advanced cardiac care that I needed. My doctors said that they suspected I was suffering from viral cardiomyopathy, which essentially means that a virus likely attacked my heart and caused inflammation of the muscle (a condition called myocarditis) that made it too weak to effectively pump blood to the rest of my body. In other words, I developed heart failure, but even still, doctors aren’t 100% sure what exactly made my heart so weak.

My condition was severe enough to warrant getting an LVAD (left ventricular assist device), which is basically a pump that’s surgically implanted in the chest to help your heart do its job when it gets too weak. My family and I ultimately decided that getting the device was the best option to protect my health, but then I came down with pneumonia and those plans were put on pause. My body was so weak, numb, and swollen from everything I had gone through that I had to eat via a feeding tube to boost my nutrition so I could become strong enough to get through the surgery.

I eventually had my LVAD implanted in August 2022 and stayed in the hospital for two weeks. When I finally went home, I was under nurses’ care for a while as I went through physical therapy to learn how to live with the LVAD. It was a tough recovery, but a couple months later, I was able to work and drive, and my energy generally felt like it was back to where it was before I got sick. A couple more months later, tests actually showed that my heart had become a lot stronger, so around January my doctors started discussing the possibility of getting my LVAD removed. I underwent some cardiac exams to see if my heart could support itself without the device—and I passed! On February 13, 2023, I officially said goodbye to my LVAD.

It was all really confusing for me to understand at the time because I was a healthy 39-year-old who had never experienced any heart problems. Then I ended up having two open-heart surgeries in less than a year. It was a journey, to say the least, but my children helped me get through this. Now, I’m back to work full time, I do all of my daily chores, I go to baseball games, and I’m able to participate in all of the fun outdoor activities that my family loves to do. Looking back, I truly believe that everything happened when it needed to happen, and I can’t help but think that I probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t listen to my gut and go to the doctor.

I really can’t thank my doctors enough for getting me to where I am today. I’m a busy mom, just like anybody else, but this experience has taught me how important it is to prioritize my health. I don’t let a day go by that I don’t exercise, even if I just go for a 30-minute walk—anything that will keep my heart healthy and strong. But most importantly, I listen to my body. And if I want anyone reading this to remember anything about my story, it’s this: Pay attention, and if something doesn’t feel right, see a doctor. Don’t wait. Don’t brush it off. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.