Supermodel Anok Yai has been silently battling a congenital defect that she says is “overworking her heart and slowly destroying her lungs.
The 28-year-old runway star, who was just named the Fashion Awards’ 2025 Model of the Year, shared a candid post on Instagram, detailing her “silent” health battle.
‘For the past year, I’ve been dealing with this silent battle. I incidentally found out I had a Congenital defect overworking my heart and slowly destroying my lungs,’ Anok wrote alongside videos and photos from her hospital stay.
Yai, the first Black model to open a Prada runway, said what started as a barely noticeable issue soon escalated into alarming symptoms.
‘What started as something asymptomatic for the majority of my life turned into a lingering cough, which turned to chest pains, bouts of coughing up blood, then at times struggling to breathe,’ she continued.
‘Ive always thought I could outwork or outrun anything but the universe has a way of slowing you down and waking you up.’
The model then revealed she recently underwent a major procedure – and thankfully, it was a success.
‘So yesterday I had a successful Robotic Lung Surgery thanks to Dr. Robert Cerfolio and his gracious and talented team who I am forever indebted to for giving me more time,’ she shared.
Robotic thoracic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure used to remove diseased lung tissue and surrounding lymph nodes, according to the American Lung Association.
Anok went on to thank the doctors who helped uncover the condition before it became even more dangerous.
‘And I am forever grateful for Dr. Harmik Soukiasian and everyone at the @beverlyhillsconciergehealth for discovering my condition,’ she wrote.
‘Thank you to all the doctors and amazing nurses at @nyulangone. And thank you to my friends and family for being the first thing I saw when I woke up.’
‘For now I’m healing … but I’ll be back. See ya.’
