Community Corner

Match Made In Heaven: LI Man Meets Heart Donor's Daughter

The meeting between a Long Island man and the daughter of the man whose heart now beats in his chest occurred last week.

(Image via Town of Islip)

ISLIP, NY - It was a match made in heaven — a meeting that brought together a Long Island man who recently received a heart transplant and the daughter of his donor.

Raymond Miehl, 62, met Ashley Brayton, whose father’s heart now beats in his chest, coming off her flight from her hometown in Ohio to McArthur Airport on Friday.

Brayton's father, Ronnie Davis, died March 1, 2016, at 46. Just two days later, Miehl received his heart. Little did they know it would bring together two families from two different parts of the country.

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The families first made contact two years ago and have been planning this meeting for over a year.

"I say you can’t take your organs to heaven, so you might as well give somebody a fighting chance that might not otherwise have one," Brayton said.

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Miehl, who felt grateful to receive Davis's heart, vowed to honor his memory by taking care of his health. The two families plan to maintain contact through this special connection.

"We were very grateful and thankful that there’s somebody still going with her father, that she knows that her father is still going and that he’s living still," he said. "And I’m taking care of it as much as I can and as good as I can."

Now he's using his story to encourage other people to become donors.

"My wife is a donor, my daughter’s a donor. I don’t know if I could be, but if I could, I would definitely be a donor," Miehl said. "And I think that people would definitely benefit from other people being donors."

All photos courtesy of the Town of Islip


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