HIV-positive heart donor’s family, recipient meet

By TED SHAFFREY and DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who got a new lease on life after a ground-breaking heart transplant between an HIV-positive donor and recipient got to meet the family of the woman who gave it to her. Miriam Nieves, 62, on Tuesday eagerly hugged the mother and sisters of Brittany Newton, a 30-year old Louisiana woman whose heart she received earlier this year in what doctors at Montefiore Medical Center say was the first heart transplant from an HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive recipient. The transplant happened in April. In order to find a match, doctors at the hospital expanded their search to include HIV-positive donors.