“I am a very private person, but I felt it was important to tell my story,” said Christina Casumpang. In 2006, after suffering complications from pregnancy, Casumpang developed maternal sepsis. She tragically lost her daughter at five-and-a-half months pregnant and entered a month-long coma.
“My kidneys shut down. When I woke up, my room looked like a shrine,” Casumpang said.
When Christina woke up from the coma, she immediately began dialysis and was placed on the national transplant list. Casumpang braved treatment for five years before receiving a kidney transplant from a generous donor in 2011.
However, this was not the end of the road for her.
Come 2015, Casumpang needed to go back on dialysis, and she awaited a second kidney transplant.
“In December 2018, on the same date my grandmother passed away, I got blessed with another kidney,” Casumpang said, “and I came home on Christmas Day.”
Forever grateful for her new chance at life, Casumpang is a Gift of Life Volunteer Ambassador and helps to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation.
We share Christina’s story as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a month dedicated to celebrating and honoring culture and stories, and we recognize the importance of donation within the community.