ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Sydney Pelusio is a busy, working mom and wife. In March, she was pushing through flu-like symptoms when her husband convinced her to go to Unity Hospital to get checked out. As doctors were running a test on her heart, it stopped beating.

Pelusio was told that had she not been at the hospital when her heart stopped, she would have died at home.

“It’s a very terrifying thought, what the outcome very easily could have been and what my family could have come home to,” she tells News10NBC.  

Pelusio had myocarditis, a condition typically in young, fit people, triggered by a virus, that causes an intense immune response. Her immune system was attacking her heart.

“She was definitely the most extreme version of the case, her heart did not move at all for probably about 24 hours in total,” says Dr. Amanda Coniglio, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist at Rochester Regional.

The team at Unity Hospital kept Pelusio alive by putting in an Impella heart pump until she was transferred to Rochester General Hospital where she was put on ECMO, life support for the heart.

“It was very hard, I think it was hard for a lot of our staff just to see somebody so young and otherwise so healthy who had been taking care of herself very well, have just really bad luck,” Dr. Coniglio says.

As her family prayed, doctors put Pelusio on the transplant list and waited. They waited to see if a new heart would come or if her heart would start to heal itself. In those first few days and weeks, Pelusio says all that her broken heart could feel was a longing for her children.

“Just having them and knowing that they’re home waiting, is what absolutely kept me going.”

Slowly, Pelusio’s heart started to heal on its own. It hasn’t been an easy recovery but 8 months later, she’s back to work, back to life — and back to being a mom.

On Thursday, Pelusio, her husband, her kids and her family met with the team at Rochester Regional Health who helped save her to say thank you. “You did not just save my life, you gave me more time with my children and my family, more chances to laugh, to love, to live and even cry. I will always be grateful for that,” Pelusio said through tears.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as it was a team effort– a mix of science and faith– that led to her recovery.  

Pelusio is determined to say more than thank you, she is sharing her story, as a warning to others too.

“I just have a cold (I thought), it’s fine, I’ll get over it and one thing that I can say walking away from this is you cannot be like that mother who fills everyone else’s cup and yours is empty, so, you have to listen to your own body,” she warns. 

Pelusio is training for a marathon right now. She’s walking/running five miles a day, building back up her endurance. She’s in regular communication with Dr. Coniglio, who gave the go-ahead for training, especially considering Sydney’s plan is to run that first marathon at the happiest place on earth, Disney World. 

*A.I. assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses A.I.*