Gianna Paniagua took over our Twitter account to talk about her experiences getting a second heart transplant after 28 years with her first heart transplant as a toddler in 1992. She's a 29.5-year-old Cuban papercutting sculptor from New York City and is also currently a post-bac premed student at Columbia.
For Gianna, artmaking is like breathing. And there have been periods of time when her body couldn’t allow her to do it. Her journey, expressed through comics and sculpture, holds so much wisdom—as a patient, an artist, and a human navigating the world with medical issues most can’t see or understand.
In the two-day takeover, Gianna shared many insightful comics, papercutting sculptures, photos and videos from treatment and transplant, tips for patients as they navigate care, and some sage advice for healthcare providers and patients alike.
My art is a way for me to interact with the scientific community without working in medicine. Growth, fragility, and decay are topics surrounding the body that I study in an art studio instead of a biology classroom. @TragicDarling #GiannaTX #paperart #artinmedicine pic.twitter.com/guRmSBaNT5
— Columbia Surgery (@ColumbiaSurgery) February 24, 2022
Dualities of the human body fascinate me: strength vs. fragility, growth vs. decay, unique vs. patterned. My art materials feel like little bodies that take on invasive and destructive procedures just as my body does in the medical system. #GiannaTX #paperart pic.twitter.com/v0QSqfcaLp
— Columbia Surgery (@ColumbiaSurgery) February 24, 2022
For long term #transplant patients, access points for biopsies, procedures, and even simple IVs become a rare find. It became more complicated than just putting a call in for IV team during my 2nd transplant evaluation. #GiannaTX #graphicmedicine #comics pic.twitter.com/ItyQ86U90I
— Columbia Surgery (@ColumbiaSurgery) February 24, 2022
With over 110 biopsies in my 29 1/2 years with my two heart transplants, I can definitely say I am the biopsy princess. For patients like me that were in peds for years, the transfer to adult can be rough.
Which Cath Lab Dr. Are You? #GiannaTX #TransplantTwitter #HeartMonth pic.twitter.com/XE7jH7Gy36
— Columbia Surgery (@ColumbiaSurgery) February 24, 2022
View the entire #GiannaTX thread here.