Two families are forever tied together after a groundbreaking surgery involving an HIV-positive heart transplant. From Baton Rouge to the Bronx — two families now linked by the heart beating in Miriam Nieves’s chest. A heart donated by Brittany Newton’s family.“I’m full of thanks, and I’m full of gratitude. God’s given me several, but this is the big one. This was my life-saving, so thank you,” Nieves said.Miriam, 62, contracted HIV during years of substance abuse. She’s been clean for the last three decades. But her kidneys began to fail and doctors at Montefiore Health System, in New York City, contemplated a transplant. But they determined her heart wouldn’t survive the surgery, so she was placed on a list for both organs. “We felt if we did this, this would put her into a category of her own. She wouldn’t be competing with anybody else in the whole country,” Dr. Omar Saeed, from Montefiore Health System, said.Watch the video above for more on this story.
Two families are forever tied together after a groundbreaking surgery involving an HIV-positive heart transplant.
From Baton Rouge to the Bronx — two families now linked by the heart beating in Miriam Nieves’s chest.
A heart donated by Brittany Newton’s family.
“I’m full of thanks, and I’m full of gratitude. God’s given me several, but this is the big one. This was my life-saving, so thank you,” Nieves said.
Miriam, 62, contracted HIV during years of substance abuse.
She’s been clean for the last three decades.
But her kidneys began to fail and doctors at Montefiore Health System, in New York City, contemplated a transplant.
But they determined her heart wouldn’t survive the surgery, so she was placed on a list for both organs.
“We felt if we did this, this would put her into a category of her own. She wouldn’t be competing with anybody else in the whole country,” Dr. Omar Saeed, from Montefiore Health System, said.
Watch the video above for more on this story.
