Finding a Way Forward

In Mississippi, the river shapes everything around it. It bends. It breaks. It finds another way forward. And for Cornelius Kimple, learning how to move with the current — rather than against it — changed the course of his life.

Cornelius has lived with kidney challenges since birth. At just a year and a half old, he received his first kidney transplant from his mother, a gift that carried him through nearly two decades of milestones: school, independence, and the belief that his life would continue moving forward uninterrupted.

At just 23, Cornelius did not expect his life to change direction again. His transplanted kidney failed. By January 2023, Cornelius was on in-center dialysis.

"I felt unstoppable," he says. "And suddenly, that setback made me feel stoppable."

For someone who had always set his own pace, dialysis felt like a loss of control. When Cornelius first arrived at Fresenius Kidney Care's West Hinds County center in Clinton, Mississippi, that frustration was unmistakable.

"He did not want to be here," says Mark Roth, a social worker at the center. "In those early months, he struggled to stick with his treatment plan. He was young, discouraged, and processing a setback he never expected."

For Cornelius, dialysis felt like it was standing between him and the life he had planned.

Cornelius' care team met him where he was. When he returned to school, they worked around his schedule. When work took him across state lines, they coordinated dialysis at centers along the way.

Over time, that consistency helped Cornelius rebuild his confidence and reclaim his life.

Instead of fighting dialysis, Cornelius learned how to move forward with it. "Everything I did, I had to be intentional," he says.

He earned his national certification as a medical assistant. He launched his own small business, helping others build theirs. He worked multiple jobs, including traveling across the country as a brand ambassador, coordinating dialysis treatments wherever his work took him.

Then his journey came full circle.

Cornelius returned to a transplant camp he once attended as a child — this time as a counselor. Today, he supports children and teens who are just beginning their own journeys, many facing the uncertainty he knows well.

"You don't have to let your circumstances control who you are," he says.