Meet Diana Donnarumma 

Diana Donnarumma, an experienced model, speaker, entrepreneur, business owner and multi-organ transplant recipient and is the founder of Resilience Medical.

Diana oversees the operation, advertising, marketing, sales, and order fulfillment of Resilience Medical. She started the company from a hospital bed when she was terminally ill with intestinal failure. During that time, Diana lost all ability to eat, drink and take oral medication due to the paralysis of her digestive track. She was sustained with a life-saving IV nutrition therapy, also called total parenteral nutrition (TPN). She was connected to a pump that gave her the body the calories, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals and nutrients that the body needed for survival. The lifesaving IV nutrition was administered through a central line in her chest, called a Hickman.

Although Diana was very ill, she used her company as a reason or drive to get up in the morning. Her desire to help others was very strong and allowed her to focus on something other than her failing body. Although Diana lost her health, she never understood why people would tell her things like, “you are too pretty to be sick,”, or “You don’t look sick. Look how cute your outfit is.”

Diana quickly realized there was a huge misconception about chronic illness and what being sick actually looks like. She would often say, “I lost my health. I didn’t lose my personality or style. I still take pride in the way I look and carry myself, even on very bad health days.”

Diana spent a lot of time in the hospital before and after her multi-organ transplant, which included, her small intestine, her large intestine, the removal of her stomach and the rerouting of her organs. They considered also transplanting the stomach and pancreas, but the surgeon told her it could add years to wait on the organ transplant list and also increase your risk for rejection. The doctor informed her that transplant really just exchanges one set of problems of another. However, this was her last option and hope. The transplant was very risky. Only around 3000 people in the world have had an intestinal transplant. Diana received her ‘perfect match’ only one week after being listed for transplant in October 2017.

As you can imagine, Diana's extensive health issues forced her to basically “become a nurse” overnight, and their house contained more medical equipment than a pharmacy. During this time, Diana tested and tried many medical products to determine what supplies best suited her, what she wanted and what she needed! Diana felt that the items provided to patients were cheap, poorly made, and also stripped individuals of their value, style and personality. Diana couldn’t stand the infusion backpacks that the home healthcare and infusion pharmacy provided, or the gowns in the hospital that patients are forced to wear. Diana thought that she could create products of a better quality that were more in sync with the identity she wanted to portray to the world.

After researching options, Diana felt that these wasn't medical accessories or clothing that suited her preferences. If there were products available, they were overpriced and still ugly. She put herself on a mission to create superior medical products that people actually want to use or were excited to wear. She put her own opinion of what worked best for her and used customer feedback to continually meet consumer need and improve the company’s product line.

Resilience Medical is now an extremely successful medical product company with a global audience. She is closing the gap between fashion and medicine; and her medical products are improving patients’ quality of life one product at a time.