World\'s first living HIV-positive patient donates kidney

Nina Martinez is the face of a medical breakthrough for millions of people living with HIV.

The woman from Atlanta, Georgia became the first living donor with HIV to give her kidney to an HIV-positive recipient.

SOUNDBITE: NINA MARTINEZ, HIV POSITIVE DONOR, SAYING: "I'm the best looking living kidney donor with HIV the country has seen today, has ever seen.

I feel really good about that statement." Surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland successfully performed the groundbreaking transplant on Monday.

Both Martinez and the anonymous recipient are doing well.

SOUNDBITE: DOCTOR DORRY SEGEV, TRANSPLANT SURGEON, SAYING: "Looking at Nina redefines what HIV looks like in 2019 , HIV is not a fatal disease." A law passed in 2013 allows people with HIV to become organ donors.

Until now, HIV positive recipients have received organs from deceased donors.

But this advancement involving a living donor expands the potential organ donor pool for HIV positive patients.

Martinez says she first wanted to donate her kidney to a friend with HIV.

But he died last year before she completed the screening necessary to become an eligible donor.

SOUNDBITE: NINA MARTINEZ, HIV POSITIVE DONOR, SAYING: "I still atrribute my donation to him because had he not asked for a kidney I wouldn't have given one." Martinez says she hopes her story will give hope to others living with HIV.

She plans to run the Marine Corp marathon this year -- and is confident she'll do just fine even with one kidney.