By JACKIE LARSON / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

He was a good kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. A 16-year-old El Paso High School basketball player, Eddy Vargas loved his car and his girlfriend and his family, and he was known for his quick smile and generous heart.

One Saturday night in June, as he went around the corner for ice cream, he was brutally bludgeoned with a gun by gang members for his jewelry. He died of head injuries three days later. His family made the decision that he would be an organ donor.

The night Eddy died, Garland resident LaShundra Allen, 34, was losing a battle with her failing heart. She was being prepared for surgery to install a pacemaker to give her some extra time when news came that a donor heart had been found.

"They came in, and they said they weren't going to give me a pacemaker," Ms. Allen said. "They said, 'No - we have your heart.' "

The Shreveport, La., native had been working at a casino there when she had a mild stroke in 2000 and had to stop working. She came to Dallas after the heart transplant surgeon she was working with left Shreveport.

She went in for surgery at 9 p.m. and came out at 3 a.m., with Eddy Vargas' heart beating in her chest.

Ms. Allen had multiple rejection-related complications but finally stabilized. She's a single parent, and the transplant meant the world to her daughter, Angelica, 13.

"She was so happy that I got a new heart - and when I first got it, she was very protective of me," Ms. Allen said. "Without my sister and my daughter, I don't know how I would have survived. They have been there for me."

Ms. Allen, who turned 35 last week, said she plans to make the most of her second chance.

"I'm still trying to get my body together," she said. "When I get completely feeling better, I want to go back to college and finish. I have a whole lot of things that I want to accomplish. I want to buy a house and own my own business one day."

Ms. Allen learned about Eddy from a newspaper story.

"It's really a touching story; it made me cry when I read it," she said. "And I cried when I first got a letter from his family. I feel blessed, and lucky, all at the same time - and real thankful."

On April 30, Ms. Allen and her daughter will fly to El Paso, courtesy of Southwest Airlines, to thank Eddy's family in person.

Cristina Vargas said that when she and her husband were asked on that terrible day if they would consider donating some of their son's organs, they didn't hesitate.

"We didn't need to speak about it, because we know what Eddy wanted," Ms. Vargas said, recalling watching the movie John Q about a father fighting for a heart transplant for his son. "My husband asked Eddy what he thought about it, and he said he would like to be a donor. But I think if Eddy had never told us about donation, we would have made the same decision, because we know that Eddy always wanted to help people.

"I miss my son every moment in my life, and I am still crying, but when I think that in some place his heart is still beating, it's like I'm in a dark place but I can see a light," Ms. Vargas said. "God put that light there, and now he will give us the chance to see that light.

"I need to know Ms. Allen. I need to listen to my son's heart again, because God made this heart with gold," Ms. Vargas said.

Pam Silvestri of the Southwest Transplant Alliance said the story of Eddy's heart and Ms. Allen's new life is an important one.

"Organ donation in general is something people don't like to talk about because they don't like to talk about the end of life. ... They think it's about death, but it's really about life and about people saving people."

More than 90,000 people in the U.S. are awaiting life-saving organ transplants, including more than 6,000 in Texas.

While the waiting list has grown by more than 300 percent in the last 10 years, the pool of potential organ donors has shrunk over the years because of seat belt and helmet laws.

About 7,000 people become organ donors each year, roughly half the estimated potential, Ms. Silvestri said. An average of 17 people die each day because the organs they need don't become available in time, she said.

"When families haven't discussed donation and don't know what their loved one wanted, then it's a much more difficult decision to make," Ms. Silvestri said. "The most important thing is to make a decision about being a donor and then sharing that decision with the family."

Jackie Larson is an Ennis-based freelance writer. Questions about organ donation can be directed to the Southwest Transplant Alliance at 214-522-0255, 800-788-8058 or www.organ.org.