Anok Yai is opening up about her battle with a very serious medical condition.
On Friday (December 19), the 28-year-old model, who was just recently named the 2025 Model of the Year by the Fashion Awards, revealed that she has been diagnosed with a congenital defect that is “overworking” her heart and “destroying” her lungs.
Keep reading to find out more…“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 along with several videos and photos of herself in the hospital.
“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. “I chose to work through this while trying to find the right doctor and the right time. I quickly realized there was never going to be a ‘right time’ – my health would continue to worsen. Ive always thought I could outwork or outrun anything but the universe has a way of slowing you down and waking you up.”
“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.
A robotic thoracic surgery is minimally invasive surgery that removes diseased lung tissue and surrounding lymph nodes, according to the American Lung Association.
“And I am forever grateful for Dr. Harmik Soukiasian and everyone at the @beverlyhillsconciergehealth for discovering my condition,” Anok went on. “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 ❤️” she concluded.
We wish Anok a speedy recovery after the surgery.