EL PASO --Wayne Mullens has waited nearly four years to meet the family of the man who saved his life.

He received a liver transplant in July 2005 from 21-year-old Wade Ehrensberger, who died after being struck in the head with a softball.

"I feel really bad about the whole scenario," said Mullens, 52. "His accident was just a freak accident."

Saturday, Mullens will go to Beaumont, Texas, to meet Kerry Ehrensberger, Wade's mom.

It will be the first meeting for the two families, though they have communicated several times by e-mail and telephone since the accident.

Mullens said he wanted to contact Kerry Ehrensberger soon after the transplant.

"Out of respect, I wanted to tell his mother I really appreciated that. ... I think somehow I owe her," Mullens said.

Mullens received most of Wade's liver. The rest of the organ went to an infant.

Kerry Ehrensberger said that about a month before his death, her son told her of his desire to be an organ donor.

Just a few weeks later, Wade was running from third base to home plate during a softball game when the ball hit the left side of his head behind his ear, his mom said.

She said he kept running, crossed the base and said he was all right.

But a blood vessel in his head burst after the impact, sending him into a coma.

"The doctor came and told me he had been operating 20 something years and had never seen a brain so badly damaged that wasn't in a massive car wreck," Ehrensberger said.

After Wade was pronounced brain-dead, his eyes, kidneys, liver, heart and fatty tissue from his stomach were removed for transplant or research.

"He would have been elated. He was the kind of guy that would help anybody," Kerry Ehrensberger said, choking up.

"He was always helping somebody move. I said, 'Wade, are you a moving van?' and he said, 'Mom, people need help, and I have a truck.' "

Except for Mullens, she doesn't know where her son's organs ended up. She said she'd heard that a woman who received one of his kidneys died only three days later.

When Mullens and his wife arrive in Beaumont this week, they will be met by Kerry Ehrensberger and her family. They will together attend an event for organ donors and will spend the night at Ehrensberger's home.

"It's probably going to be a very emotional, sad thing because it brings back a lot of memories," she said. "We're so happy for (Mullens), and it helps us that Wade was able to help someone else."

Mullens, an Eastsider, said the transplant changed his life. He's eager to finally be in the same room with the mother of the man who gave him a second chance.

"I want to be up close and personal with her and tell her how I feel and hug her to death," he said. "It's going to be emotional. I just don't know what to expect."

Kerry Ehrensberger said she also expects the tears to flow. She's grateful her family's tragedy was able to help someone, especially when she sees how much her son is reflected in Mullens.

"There's a lot of similarities," she said. "His name is Wayne and Wade's was Wade. They're both left-handed. They both love to work on cars and automobiles. Both their favorite baseball team was the Red Sox."