Supermodel Anok Yai, 28, reveals common symptom before being diagnosed with lung condition that left her ‘vomiting blood’

Supermodel Anok Yai has explained how a lingering cough and symptoms such as chest pains and vomiting blood led to a heart-breaking health diagnosis, temporarily sidelining her career.

The 28-year-old, who followed in Naomi Campbell’s footsteps to become the second Black model to open a Prada show, is best known for gracing Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Perfect, and Allure over the years.

As well as walking the runway for fashion houses such as Versace and Burberry, Yai has starred in campaigns for the likes of Nike and Tiffany & Co.

On Friday (December 19), the fashion icon revealed to her 3.3 million Instagram followers she’d been forced to take a break from work due to ‘dealing with [a] silent battle’.

Taking to social media, she shared a series of snaps from her hospital bed, which included a snap of her reading Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

“I incidentally found out I had a congenital defect overworking my heart and slowly destroying my lungs,” she captioned the carousel.

A congenital defect can cause physical disability, intellectual and developmental disability, and health issues, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

According to researchers, some defects are ‘more disruptive’ than others and, if not detected and treated quickly, can sometimes be fatal or cause lifelong health problems.

Despite being ‘asymptomatic for the majority of [her] life’, Yai realised something was seriously wrong when a persistent cough led to the other ailments manifesting.

“[The cough] turned to chest pains, bouts of coughing up blood, then at times struggling to breathe,” she recalled.

“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.”

Despite believing she could ‘outwork or outrun anything’, Yai claimed the universe had a ‘way of slowing you down and waking you up’.

The Egyptian-born star then revealed she’d had a successful robotic lung surgery, a minimally invasive technique that sees surgeons removing lung tissue or lymph nodes through tiny incisions.

She said she was ‘grateful’ for staff working out of Beverly Hills Concierge Health Center for discovering her condition before thanking doctors and ‘amazing nurses’ at NYU Langone Health.

Now, Yai is focusing her efforts on recovery and healing,

Concluding her statement, she added: “I’ll be back. See ya.”

The NICHD confirmed that about one in every 33 US infants is born with a major congenital anomaly.

These issues can occur during any kid of pregnancy, but some factors, such as drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or a lack of folic acid can increase the risk.

Certain medications, including thalidomide, and infections, such as cytomegalovirus, a common virus that spreads through body fluids, and toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, can also elevate the chance of development.

Symptoms of congenital defects can include, but are not limited to, easily getting short of breath during exercise, fainting, a blue tinge to the skin or lips, and swelling in the legs, as per the Mayo Clinic.