Emotional reunion as Westchester grandmother Mariam Nieves meets family of her heart donor in first HIV-positive to HIV-positive transplant
NEW YORK - A Westchester grandmother has a second chance at life.
She is HIV-positive and received the first-ever HIV-positive to HIV-positive heart transplant.
She met her donor's family face-to-face first the first time Tuesday.
As CBS2's Jennifer Bisram reports, the heartwarming union took place at Montefiore hospital in the Bronx, where two families connected by the same heart met for the first time. There was no shortage of hugs and tears.
"They've definitely given me a second chance in life," Mariam Nieves said.
Earlier this year, 62-year old Nieves' kidney failed, then her heart. She's HIV-positive.
"Even today, people with HIV can go to a heart transplant center in the United States and be told that that center cannot offer them a heart transplant," infectious disease specialist Dr. Vagish Hemmige said.
But 15,000 miles away in Louisiana, there was another HIV-positive heart awaiting her, after 30-year old Brittany Newton tragically passed away.
"April 12th, I got the call that saved my life and gave me a second chance," Nieves said.
And so doctors went to work in the OR, giving her a new heart and kidney.
"For the first time ever, we would take a heart from someone that's HIV-positive to be transplanted into a recipient that's HIV-positive. Never been done before," said cardiologist Dr. Omar Saeed.
Nieves has been recovering and documenting her journey.
Seven months later, just days before Thanksgiving, the wife, mother and grandmother finally got to meet the family who she calls her angels, that gave her the gift of life, again.
"Brittany's years on earth was short, but through organ donation her spirit lives on. Thank you," Breanne Newton said.
With tears, the family listened to Brittany's heart, that's now beating in Nieves.
"April 13th is my new birthday because that's when I got my heart," said Nieves.
"It takes a special partner in the Newton family to sort of agree to donate organs that changed the trajectory for a human being," said Nieves' relative Edwin Feliciano.
Nieves says she feels so blessed she was given a second chance at life.
Now, she hopes her story encourages others to sign up for organ donation.