‘It has been a journey’
Today is special for Bethel Park mother following near-fatal heart infection
It was a perfect day for a hike when Loree and Adam Benigni started up a mountain in North Carolina in July 2022. They were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. She was 39 years old.
“When I was climbing near the top, I was starting to get out of breath,” she said. “I didn’t think much of it, because I just climbed a mountain.”
But things would look very different to this active mother of two boys a few days later, when they returned home to Bethel Park. She began experiencing flu-like symptoms; several C OVID tests came back negative.
She knew something was off when just getting up to brush her teeth left her out of breath.
“I thought I had pneumonia, so I went to the local urgent care,” she said.
Fearing it was much more serious, they sent her to St. Clair Hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest. She heard someone say, “She’s not going to make it.”
“I blacked out. That is all I remember there,” she said.
She found out later that her chances of survival were 5-10% at that point. Her husband was told he would have to make the decision to pull the plug and end her life if they didn’t move her to Allegheny General Hospital, because she required a higher level of cardiac care.
That choice — which likely saved her life — would lead to a 35-day hospital stay that included a medically induced coma and an implant to help her heart pump.
One of the hardest things, she said, was not seeing her boys — at the time, Drew was 12, and Jake was 8 — who were not allowed to visit her in the ICU/critical care unit because they were under 18.
Ms. Benigni was diagnosed with viral myocardium resulting from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a viral infection.
In addition to viruses leading to myocarditis, it can also be caused by a host of other factors, including bacteria, fungi and parasites, per the Mayo Clinic.
“Myocarditis may be caused by infections, some drugs and chemicals, or a condition that causes bodywide inflammation. Often, the cause of myocarditis isn’t found,” the Mayo Clinic notes on its website.
Her only shot at survival was a heart pump called a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD. So her heart could get strong enough to receive it, her doctors put her in a medically induced coma.
“I was on a breathing tube, and I remember hearing nurses talking, my husband being there and my parents coming in. But it was a weird feeling,” she recalled. You are on a different planet. It was a very calm, peaceful feeling, like being in a dream.”
When she awoke three days later, she was told what had happened. And she was surprised.
“I never had heart problems and now I am being told I had heart failure,” she recalled.
Three weeks later, the LVAD was installed. She learned that she would get to see her sons for the first time since her ordeal began.
“One day the doctor organized for us to meet in the courtyard because it was summer and I was healthy enough to go outside,” Ms. Benigni said.
It wasn’t easy for them, seeing her hooked up to medical equipment — a feeding tube, an IV.
“I don’t know if that was the best decision because my youngest is still kind of scared today,” she said. “He doesn’t like to talk about it and he doesn’t like hospitals.”
After 35 days, Ms. Benigni was able to go home. Her mother, Sharyn Altmire, came from Erie to help for a couple of months.
And in February 2023, after her heart recovered, the LVAD was removed.
Ms. Benigni has resumed an active lifestyle that includes yoga and hiking — and speaking engagements about what happened to her.
“It has been a journey,” she said. “When you go through something like this, all you want to do is help somebody else.
“I can’t tell you how hard I worked to get back. I had to teach myself to walk again everyday through physical therapy. What got me through it was knowing I am a mom and my kids need me.”
On July 18, Ms. Benigni will mark two years since her cardiac arrest. Before that, however, the family will spend Mother’s Day in Erie — with her mother.