A woman says running 'saved her life' after she went into heart failure after a half marathon - and discovered she had a deadly congenital defect.

Madi DiBattista, 25, took part in the 13.1 mile-long Flying Pig half marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 3, 2024, and achieved a personal record of one hour 55 minutes.



It was only on her return home, she realised she was struggling to climb up the stairs in her apartment and felt "fatigued for weeks after"."

She went to St Elizabeth's Hospital and had blood work and testing on her lungs.

Doctors revealed she had an anomalous left main coronary artery - which impairs blood flow to the heart - and can be fatal if left untreated.

Madi wasn't aware during the marathon that her heart was going into failure, and it "took a couple of weeks" for her to realise the severity of her condition. "

The heart defect is usually found in babies and doctors were baffled that it hadn't been picked up before.

Six weeks after her diagnosis, on August 16, 2024, Madi had open heart surgery where doctors made a hole big enough for blood to pass through her artery normally - an unroofing procedure - to relieve the stress on her heart.



Seven months on, Madi has recovered well and is slowly getting back into running.

Madi, a brand director, from Cincinatti, Ohio, US, said: "It wasn't running that caused it [the defect]."



"In a lot of ways running saved my life because it made me aware of my health. "

"The team of doctors I was working with were really amazed."



"There's a one-in-5000 chance of finding it in general. "

"A lot of those cases are found in autopsies of young children and are exercise induced."



"Being 24 the nursing staff were in amazement that I've only discovered it a short time ago."



"I'm such an active person and then overnight shifted to the mentality of being so sick."



"It was a very fast, very crazy experience."



Madi had had episodes of fainting as a toddler and into her teens, but it was when she took up running, she began to notice things weren't right.



Becoming "really pale", Madi lost nearly 25lbs over the year prior to her marathon and found herself short of breath."



She said: "My heart rate was nearly 200bpm when I was trying to do activity like getting up steps, walking running, things like that."



"I thought I was having panic attacks and all along it was my heart problem."



"Last spring I did a half marathon."



"After that race my heart never really bounced back."



"We really look at that day and what a magical miracle it was, it was my last good day."



"I went into it incredibly nervous, it was something I'd signed up for months before."



"The night before I was not sure whether to do it or not, my runs hadn't been good. "

"I had my breakfast, and I was getting dressed and looked at my watch and my heart rate was really low."



"I felt calm and it made me feel even better about doing the race that day. "

"At the time I'd not even had the concern that this would hurt my heart. "

"I actually had a personal record that day."



Madi's health continued to decline from that day, but blood work results came back normal.



After explaining her symptoms to her parents, dad Brian DiBattista, 47 and step-mum Gina, 48, she underwent testing on her lungs on June 26 2024.



She said: "They thought I had some clotting due to the race."



"A doctor read my scans one more time and that was when they found my heart defect."



"The more terrifying part was that he said you'll probably not be able to live another 10 years the way you are now."



Madi underwent open heart surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, where doctors cut through muscle in a procedure called unroofing.



This allows for a hole to be made in the heart so bloody can pass through the artery as it should.



She spent a week in hospital after the four-hour surgery.

She said: "The recovery was kind of miraculous, even being so tired from surgery I also felt this energy which is probably how people who have hearts that have worked really well feel every day."



"I was like 'wow, I feel amazing'." "

Eight months on from her surgery, Madi is now "trying" to get back into running like she did before."



"My ribs and back are still very sore from how invasive the surgery was," she said."



"As I try a mile here, two miles there I get tired, but that's because I'm out of shape."



"The long-term prognosis is that it should be fixed and I can return to my life as it was before."