Camille Naredo

News anchor Karmina Constantino speaks with Ganiel Krishnan on Oh My Gan! at the ABS-CBN Digital Studios in Quezon City on June 9, 2026. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

News anchor Karmina Constantino speaks with Ganiel Krishnan on Oh My Gan! at the ABS-CBN Digital Studios in Quezon City on June 9, 2026. Three decades in the newsroom have shaped Constantino into a firm believer in the power of journalism. For her, journalists are "chroniclers of history as it is happening," driven by the core principle of holding power to account. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

OH MY GAN!  KARMINA CONSTANTINO

Ganiel Krishnan

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/178533587216820260609-oh-my-gan-karmina-constantino-JC0503.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="News anchor Karmina Constantino speaks with Ganiel Krishnan on Oh My Gan! at the ABS-CBN Digital Studios in Quezon City on June 9, 2026. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News"/>News anchor Karmina Constantino speaks with Ganiel Krishnan on Oh My Gan! at the ABS-CBN Digital Studios in Quezon City on June 9, 2026. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News</div>MANILA -- Veteran broadcast journalist Karmina Constantino became emotional as she recalled surviving a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2015 and fighting to stay alive for her children.In an interview on “Oh My Gan!,” Constantino shared that the medical emergency happened while she was between newscasts at work.Constantino had just finished anchoring “Dateline” and was waiting for her next program when she visited the office of former ANC executive Cilette Liboro to distribute invitations for her youngest son’s third birthday.During their conversation, Constantino suddenly felt something snap in her head.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/people-culture-events/2026/7/29/karmina-constantino-looks-back-on-30-year-career-journalism-found-me-2132">Karmina Constantino looks back on 30-year career: ‘Journalism found me’</a></div>“I just felt my head snap back. I felt like something was wrong,” she recalled.Constantino said she did not immediately feel dizzy, but became disoriented and felt her energy quickly fading.“I was so loopy. I was so wonky already. I felt like my energy was draining. Humihiwalay na talaga ako,” she said.Despite her condition, Constantino managed to instruct those around her to contact her husband, Noel Torres.An emergency response team arrived within minutes and prepared to bring her down using a stretcher, but Constantino insisted on remaining seated in a wheelchair.“I said, ‘No. You are going to get a wheelchair. You’re going to put me in that wheelchair, and that’s how you’re going to bring me to St. Luke’s,’” she recounted.Constantino said doctors later told her that remaining upright may have helped save her life because the bleeding was located at the base of her brain.“The aneurysm had already ruptured. If I had laid down, kakalat na yung dugo,” she explained.While she was being rushed to the hospital, Constantino remembered advice she had previously heard from a doctor she interviewed following the death of actor Fernando Poe Jr.The doctor had said that during a medical emergency, a patient must try to remain lucid and awake.“I have to stay lucid. I have to stay awake. I have to fight this,” Constantino recalled telling herself.She finally allowed herself to rest after hearing her husband’s voice at the hospital.“When I heard my husband’s voice, that’s when I said, ‘Okay, I can sleep now. I can rest,’” she said.Constantino later learned that she continued responding to tests in the emergency room, although she no longer remembered what was happening.Her aneurysm eventually ruptured for a second time while she was under observation.According to her husband’s account, Constantino suddenly sat up at around 1:30 a.m. and screamed that she could not breathe before falling back with her eyes open.A code blue was called, and doctors performed emergency brain surgery the following morning.<div><a class="fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2025/6/23/respectful-but-relentless-karmina-constantino-opens-up-on-fearless-interviews-1131">Respectful but relentless: Karmina Constantino opens up on fearless interviews</a></div>Constantino revealed that one of the doctors warned her husband that she might never wake up.“My dad and my mom talked to Ging Reyes at that time to request a news blackout because they didn’t know what was going to happen,” she shared.Constantino survived and woke up after spending around two to three days in a coma. Throughout the ordeal, she said her only concern was her family.“In the ambulance, the only thoughts were, ‘Don’t let me die. My kids,’” Constantino said.“I was holding the doctor’s hand and saying, ‘Don’t let me die, don’t let me die. My kids, my kids, my kids.’ Yun lang yung naiisip ko.”When she regained consciousness in the intensive care unit, the first thing she asked was the day of the week because she remembered that her son’s birthday was approaching.“I said, ‘It’s Theo’s birthday on Saturday,’” she recalled.Her husband assured her that the party had already been canceled and that all the arrangements had been taken care of.Constantino said she did not think about work or her career during the ordeal.“Hindi ko naisip yung trabaho ko. Inisip ko lang yung mga anak ko. Inisip ko lang yung asawa ko,” she said.Following the surgery, Constantino had to undergo therapy and learn how to walk again.She remembered her late father encouraging her while she walked along the hospital hallway with her therapist.<div><a class="fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/4/5/renato-constantino-jr-passes-away-1327">Renato Constantino Jr. passes away</a></div>“He said, ‘Hindi ka pilay. Aneurysm lang ’yan.’ And I said, ‘Oo nga.’ That kept me going,” she recalled.Constantino returned to work about two months after the medical emergency. She said the life-threatening experience reminded her to live in a way that would leave her with happy and meaningful thoughts during her most difficult moments.“You have to live your life so that when that moment comes and you’re left with nothing but your thoughts, all those thoughts will just be happy thoughts,” she reflected. “I’m glad that during that time, it was really my family that I was thinking about.”Constantino also credited her faith, sense of humor and willingness to be kind to herself for helping her recover.“Faith will pull you through, and a lot of humor as well, and not being hard on yourself,” she said.The journalist said she continues to pray several times each day and finds strength in her belief that things will eventually get better.“I just know that without it, I’m nothing. In happy times and in bad times, my faith has always pulled me through,” she said. “Ang lakas lang ng paniniwala ko that, in the end, everything will be okay.”<div> </div><div>WATCH:</div><div><iframe width="960" height="540" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JnGv1ZO-4m8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div>

Veteran broadcast journalist Karmina Constantino became emotional as she recalled surviving a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2015 and fighting to stay alive for her children.

Veteran broadcast journalist Karmina Constantino became emotional as she recalled surviving a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2015 and fighting to stay alive for her children.

Karmina Constantino recalls surviving brain aneurysm: ‘Don’t let me die, my kids’

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Karmina Constantino recalls surviving brain aneurysm: ‘Don’t let me die, my kids’

Ganiel Krishnan,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 30, 2026 09:00 AM PHT

Read More:

Aneurysm

health

Karmina Constantino

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