Gina has been battling cystic fibrosis her entire life. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes excess mucus to build up in organs like the lungs and pancreas and is progressive, meaning it gets worse over time.

Gina’s health has been declining severely over the last few years and even more so in the last few months. In her own words, “Cystic fibrosis slowly took it all away from me - my career, travelling, seeing my family, life events, the gym, socializing, and forced me to be home bound and oxygen dependent.”

While a groundbreaking treatment called Trikafta has been a lifesaver for many in the CF community, Gina was not so lucky as she was not eligible due to her rare CF mutation. She is part of the 7.3% of people with CF who currently have no treatment options. Information that severely impacted her mental health.

She is a constant advocate for her CF community and especially her rare mutation community of CFers. Not only has she written multiple blog posts for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, but she was featured as an official representative for the foundation in her video that was presented at The CF North American Conference (viewed by over 5,000 pharmaceutical professionals!).

While her health continued to decline quickly and there were no treatment options in sight, Gina began to realize that transplant was going to be her only option for a second chance. Gina decided to undergo the lengthy and tiring process of getting put on the transplant list. Luckily, she was approved by NYU Langone to be placed on the list this past September. Being eligible for the list puts the patient in a strange predicament. You need to be sick enough but also not too sick; meaning from that point on, being home bound wasn’t just a recommendation anymore, it was a requirement. She was told that she would realistically “get the call” for lungs in 3 to 6 months.

To everyone’s surprise, she was called in on September 30th. Gina and her mom made incredibly hard last minute arrangements to get to NYU, she was admitted, and anxiously waited to hear if it was truly her shot at a pair of new lungs. After an exciting (but mostly stressful) 12 hours, Gina learned that the lungs were poor quality and she was discharged. Understandably, this was another massive blow to Gina’s mental health after getting so hopeful that she would have been one step closer to living without her oxygen tank at her side.

On October 21st, Gina had tons of discomfort and tightness in her chest, which isn’t too uncommon in the day of the life of someone with CF. However, after trusting her gut and taking a trip to the hospital, Gina learned that her right lung had collapsed. She was immediately admitted to Morristown as she was putting all of the strain on her “good” lung which only functioned with a small percent. She had to be placed on an ECMO machine and kept stable until the possibility of new lungs came along. Once she was cleared for travel and a bed opened up in NYU, Gina was transferred to her team at NYU Langone Health. At that point, Gina was told that she would have to stay on the life support provided by the ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) to keep her heart and lungs working until the day of transplant, as they couldn’t risk a second collapsed lung.

Luckily, after two weeks, on October 29th Gina received a double lung transplant! She is now beginning the very long road to recovery. Recovery will be tough and so will finances during this difficult time. Gina’s mom, Flor, has always been by her side as her number one care taker. The cost of commuting to and from the city, pet care for Gina’s dog Moon, meds, and the million other things a mom needs to do to make sure her daughter is as comfortable as possible, adds up very fast. Flor is doing absolutely everything she can to make it work and be there to support Gina, while juggling work and the rest of these responsibilities.

Gina has her bachelor's degree in early childhood education and had dreams of being a teacher and educator. She is an absolute natural when it comes to education and working with children. Kids are drawn to her humour, kindness, and infectious personality! CF drastically put this dream on hold. Gina has had to sacrifice the luxury of being healthy enough to work for many years now and hasn’t been able to provide like she used to for her family.

Any donation, even the smallest amount, would take an incredible weight off. It will cover travel costs, getting to and from post op appointments, recovery costs, the list goes on.

These new lungs will mean so many new possibilities and less limitations like never having to do her nebulized inhaled medications or use her therapy vest again. However, the negative effects on her pancreas are irreversible meaning her diabetes does not go away and she will continue to take enzymes and insulin for the rest of her life. New lungs are also a new risk. Anti-rejection pills have become a part of Gina’s daily routine, which have been known to cause their own complications.

This transplant doesn’t solve all of Gina’s problems, but it will allow her to navigate one deep breath at a time.

Any amount, no matter how small, makes a difference. Thank you for helping Gina breathe easier and live the life she’s fought so hard for.

“Transplant is not a cure but rather, a new path for the life I deserve.” - Gina