Lucia Sisic, Miss Austria who had seven heart operations, dies at 22

Lucia Sisic, the reigning Miss Austria, has died at the age of 22, the organization that runs the country's national pageant confirmed. Mission Austria, which oversees the Miss and Mister Austria competitions, announced her death in a social media tribute posted Monday. An official cause of death has not been made public.

Sisic, who was from Vienna, had lived with a congenital heart condition since birth and had spoken openly about it. She was born with a heart valve defect and underwent seven heart operations over the course of her life, according to the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung. Her most recent procedure came in September 2025.

'It is with great shock and deep sadness that we have learned of the passing of our Miss Austria 2024, Lucia Sisic,' the group wrote in a post signed by chief executive Kerstin Rigger and her husband, Jörg. It said Sisic would be remembered as a wonderful young woman, and offered sympathy to her family, friends and all those close to her.

From Miss Vienna to the national crown

Sisic rose through Austria's pageant scene in 2024. She was named Miss Vienna in January that year before winning the national Miss Austria title on Sept. 10, 2024, at Vienna Fashion Week, a swift climb from a regional crown to the country's flagship pageant in a single year.

She remained the reigning Miss Austria at the time of her death because no national competition had been staged since her 2024 victory, the Austrian outlet oe24 reported. The absence of a new contest meant she held the title continuously from her crowning until she died, and it also meant no successor was in place to take over the sash when she was gone.

Sisic had roots beyond Austria. Her family traces to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where her parents come from the Bosanska Posavina region, and she was close to the Croatian community in Austria, which mourned her under the Croatian spelling of her name.

Her public life combined pageantry with an unusually candid account of illness. Sisic did not keep her medical history private, instead using her platform to speak about survival, recovery and gratitude toward the doctors who treated her. That openness became as much a part of her reign as the sash and crown, and it gave her a following that reached well beyond the audience for beauty contests.

What follows is drawn from Austrian reporting.

A heart defect and seven operations

Sisic's congenital heart valve defect required medical treatment beginning shortly after her birth, according to Austrian outlets including Heute, oe24 and Kronen Zeitung. Over the years the condition led to repeated surgeries, seven in all, as doctors worked to manage a defect she had carried from birth. Each operation carried its own risks, and one of them nearly cost her life.

One particularly serious operation in 2017, when she was 13, left her needing to be resuscitated, she told the Austrian outlet Heute, an ordeal she later described as touch and go. The crisis marked one of the darkest points in a long medical history.

The aftermath was not confined to her heart. Sisic experienced nerve damage affecting her left leg and foot and had to learn to walk again, she told Heute. She later spoke of a childhood shaped by hospital stays and physical limits that set her apart from other children, an experience she credited with making her stronger.

Her seventh procedure came in September 2025. Afterward she shared her relief with followers on Instagram, writing in a translated post, 'I have now also got my seventh procedure behind me and I am overjoyed that I can now officially, hopefully for a few years, have a break.' It was her last.

Speaking openly to encourage others

In an Instagram post from August 2024, Sisic thanked the pediatric cardiology specialists who had cared for her since childhood. 'Thanks to the specialists and the dedicated doctors, who have always saved my life with great efforts, I have overcome many difficult moments and have been able to live a fulfilling life,' she wrote in the translated caption. The message read less like a patient's note than a public thank-you.

Speaking to the Austrian outlet Heute in 2024, she reflected on growing up with physical restrictions that other teenagers never faced. School sports weeks passed her by, she said. 'My childhood was simply different, but it also made me strong,' she told the paper, framing the years of limitation as something that had toughened rather than diminished her.

Sisic was equally clear that she was not seeking sympathy. In accounts recalling the same interview, she said she did not want pity and instead hoped to give others courage. She cast her willingness to talk about illness as encouragement for people facing their own health battles, not a plea for compassion, and that stance ran through nearly everything she posted about her condition.

She returned often to perseverance and gratitude, describing difficult periods survived and a full life lived in spite of them.

Final posts and a last summer

Sisic stayed active on social media in the weeks before her death. Her final Instagram post, shared on Aug. 12, showed her in a gold gown under a short caption: 'Golden moments.' It was the last public image she posted, and it carried none of the medical weight that had defined so much of her earlier writing online.

Other recent posts showed her traveling. Earlier that summer she shared holiday photographs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, about a year after she had written of finally hoping for a long break from the operating room.

A title with no successor

Sisic held the Miss Austria title for two years because no national contest followed her win. Mission Austria staged no pageant in 2025, and the 2026 competition was called off for lack of sponsors, the Kurier reported.

That left no successor in place when she died. Mission Austria has not said what becomes of the title, and named no stand-in in the tribute that announced her death.

Tributes from pageant peers and family

Christopher Dengg, who was crowned Mister Austria 2024, said he was deeply shocked by Sisic's death. He told the Austrian outlet oe24 that the two had held their national titles at the same time and had grown close during the year they represented the country together, a bond he compared to family.

She was like a sister to me, especially in the time when we held office together. She will be greatly missed by all of us.

A family friend, Miroslav Piplica, wrote that Sisic had gone much too soon and forever, saying the memory of her would stay with those who loved her. He bid farewell to a 'dear angel' at peace.

The Croatian cultural community in Austria also mourned her, using the spelling Lucija Šišić and describing her as a source of pride to both her parents and Croatians in the country. Tributes from those who knew her personally spread across social media in the hours after the announcement, many of them dwelling less on the crown than on the resilience she had shown from childhood.

Mission Austria closed its own tribute with a direct farewell. 'Dear Lucia, you will always remain a part of our Miss Austria family. Rest in peace,' the organization wrote, ending the message that first told the public she was gone. The post drew a wave of condolences from people who had followed her reign and her recovery.

What remains unknown

An official cause of death has not been announced. Although Sisic had a long, well-documented history of heart problems, there has been no confirmation that her congenital condition was connected to her death. No funeral details had been released, and Mission Austria described the loss only as one it had learned of with great shock and deep sadness, leaving the circumstances of a 22-year-old's death still unexplained.