Father reveals a rare muscle condition killed his daughter, 24, who texted him 'Ow, ow' during her first NYC Marathon
Rachel Apa had been running to raise money for the Parkinson's Foundation in honour of her grandfather, who died of the disease in 2022.
Doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center fought to save her for six hours before pronouncing her dead at 9.40pm. Rhabdomyolysis, the condition that killed her, affects roughly 0.0076 per cent of the US population annually and causes muscles to break down and flood the bloodstream with toxic compounds.
Rachel had told her father Steve she had 'never felt this good' near mile nine, hours before he watched her location icon stop moving on the race-tracking app.
Her mother Michelle was waiting at mile 25 when she noticed Rachel had not moved; a bystander and two doctors from the crowd performed CPR before paramedics arrived with a defibrillator.
Steve Apa called his daughter's death 'unfathomable', saying she was in 'perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old'.
