Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Jorge Medrano never met Eddy Vargas, but he carefully keeps a black-and-white photocopy of a picture of the slain 16-year-old he credits with saving his life.

Vargas, a 6-foot-3-inch El Paso High School basketball player, died July 20 from injuries suffered when he was beaten by gang members in Juárez. There have been no arrests in the case, his mother said Friday.

Four of Vargas' organs -- his heart, liver and two kidneys -- were donated and saved the lives of four Texans, including Medrano of Central El Paso.

"I'm very grateful. I know there had to be a loss of life in order for myself and others to receive the gift of life," said Medrano, a music lover with an easygoing demeanor whose health has dramatically improved since a July 21 kidney transplant.

Medrano, 42, a diabetic who is 5 feet 3 inches tall, had been waiting on a transplant list since November, and had ballooned to 170 pounds with excess liquid.

"I felt that I would probably end up dying waiting for a kidney," Medrano said. "It was truly a miracle to get the call. I had been very sick that week. For them to call me -- I thought I was dreaming."

Since the surgery, Medrano has lost about 30 pounds, has a soaring energy level and feels "1,000 percent better," he said.

Virginia O'Quinn, a 56-year-old grandmother and former El Pasoan now living in London, Texas, is equally grateful for receiving Vargas' other kidney.

"It is just a miracle," said O'Quinn, who is now able to go inner-tubing with her grandchildren on the Llano River near her Central Texas home.

Vargas "really is a special young man, I think."

Pam Silvestri, spokeswoman for the Southwest Transplant Alliance, said Vargas also saved the lives of a 16-year-old North Texas boy, who received his liver, and a 33-year-old woman, who received his heart. Those recipients could not be reached for comment.

Nationally, about 90,000 people are waiting for organ transplants.

Vargas told his family he wished to be an organ donor while watching the Denzel Washington movie "John Q" about a father desperate to help his son in need of a heart transplant, his parents said.

"I always thought that it was like a small joy in the middle of all this pain," Eddy's mother, Cristina Vargas, said about the organ donation. "It's very beautiful. This was something (Eddy) always wanted. He was the type of person to help all the people that he could."

Donations
For information about how to become an organ or tissue donor, call the Southwest Transplant Alliance at (800) 788-8058, or visit www.organ.org.