By Tedd Shaffrey and Deepti Hajela -
The Associated Press
Brittany Newton's family grieved following her death earlier this year from a brain aneurysm.
She was 30 years old.
This week they heard her heartbeat again, only in the chest of another person who received it as a transplant.
Miriam Nieves, 62, a New York woman whose life was saved by the transplant, enthusiastically hugged Newton's mother and sisters, whom she first met at Montefiore Medical Center, where the operation was performed. in April.
“The only words I can say this Thanksgiving are that I am so thankful for science, for my family, for my God,” Nieves said.
"If it weren't for the donors, who are my angels... They gave me this second chance."
[Is it flu, RSV or coronavirus? So you can distinguish the symptoms with five keys]
Newton's mother, Bridgette Newton, brought a large photo of her daughter, who worked as a nursing assistant in Louisiana, where she lived, to the hospital.
"My daughter still walks among us,"
she assured.
"And for that I will always be grateful."
Brianca Newton listens through a stethoscope to the heartbeat of her sister Brittany Newton in the chest Miriam Nieves, who received a transplant at Montefiore Moses Hospital in the Bronx in New York on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. Ted Shaffrey / PA
Nieves, a public relations worker who now lives in the New York City suburbs, overcame her heroin addiction 30 years ago, but because of it she is HIV positive.
A married mother of three and grandmother of six,
she began to suffer from heart failure after having problems with her kidneys.
To find a match amid the severe shortage, doctors expanded their search to include HIV-positive donors.
And so they reached the family of Newton, who was an organ donor and
whose family learned he was HIV positive after his death.
[Health alert for the record of children who have not been vaccinated against measles]
Doctors transplanted his heart and kidneys into Nieves.
Newton's sisters, Breanne and Brianca Newton, listened through a stethoscope as their loved one's heart beat in Nieves's chest.
Breanne Newton said
she was not surprised when she heard Nieves say that she felt more energetic since her transplant.
“That was my sister.
She had energy, she was active,” she stated.
“We are very, very grateful.
And she's just a blessing."
"They continue to live in more than 70 people," says the mother of two men who donated organs when they died
Aug 1, 202202:32
Surgeons have been transplanting organs from HIV-positive donors to HIV-positive recipients for several years, but doctors in Montefiore said it was the first such heart transplant.
“I think it will be done again because we have shown that it is safe,” said Dr. Omar Saeed, a transplant cardiologist at Montefiore.
"The reality is that there are more people who need hearts than hearts are available
," said Dr. Vagish Hemmige, an infectious disease specialist at the hospital.
"The HIV-positive heart transplant program allows people to receive life-saving transplants with organs that otherwise could not be used."
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/YOFFNRYVHNGMDF6W5JWCJXYV5I.jpg)
