April 4, 2009

By Doug Carman

On his 50th birthday on Jan. 2, 2005, Henry Middleton said he got a gift from God, and from a surgeon in Odessa that flew to Dallas to give him a heart.

At about 2 p.m. Saturday, the IRS worker from Arlington was at Odessa Regional Medical Center's auditorium, describing how he received the heart, how a birthday party thrown at Baylor Hospital in Dallas thrown for him that day was lit up by the announcement, and how it saved his life when a woman walked up behind him.

"Are you Henry Middleton," she said uneasily.

"Yeees ma'am," Middleton said.

"I am Dominic's (Avila's) mom."

What followed was an emotional hugging between Alma Avila and Middleton, who received Dominic Avila's heart four years ago and has recovered from congestive heart failure since the transplant. The two exchanged photos, Avila giving Middleton those of her late son while Middleton his own portrait. A tear budded in Middleton's eye as he stood in front of Dominic's photo on his table while he was by himself for a short moment afterward.

This was just as the area's Donor Family Celebration started. There were about 10 families and more than 60 people there, many relatives of people who have donated their organs after dying, and some people both locally and from around the state who received them.

The event was meant to "honor the people they lost who are organ donors, because they are the heroes," Southwest Transplant Alliance spokeswoman Pam Silvestri said.

Silvestri said the Permian Basin currently has nearly 200 organ recipients, though it was hard to track the number of donors because many of them are taken to a Level One trauma center before their organs are donated, and the nearest such hospital is in Lubbock.

Avila, of Fort Stockton, said her 21-year-old son Dominic chose to be an organ donor a few months before his death on New Year's Day 2005. She said seven people received one of his organs, including his heart.

Before the two met, Avila said she was actually excited to see Middleton, the man who now has Dominic's heart.

"I've been thinking about all the recipients," she said. "I hope they're doing well. Of course when Dallas (The Southwest Transplant Alliance) told me this over the phone, I did cry... I always wanted to meet my son's recipients."

Middleton, immediately before the two met, said he felt "strange" about it but, like Avila, wanted to meet to find some closure.

Middleton told Avila that he keeps some pit bulls at his home. Avila thought at that point part of Dominic's soul was in Middleton.

"Dominic loved big pit bulls," Avila said. "Comes to show Middleton has pit bulls in his house."

"Words can't express how I feel," she later said. "I look at him, and I was seeing my son."