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SALT LAKE CITY — Victor Pardini lived 20 years with the heart of a woman.
He received the heart, which belonged to a 35-year-old female aerobics instructor from Idaho, after doctors said he wouldn't live more than mere minutes after suffering a sudden heart attack. That was in 1995.
Pardini, however, lived until about eight months ago. He died from a kidney infection in August.
"He went through quite an experience for several years, but he really did lead a very good life," his wife, Karla Pardini, said Wednesday. She said the transplant process and meeting the family of the woman who gave her husband life has been "an incredible experience."
More than 123,300 people in the United States are awaiting vital organs, 800 of them living in Utah, according to Intermountain Donor Services, the federally regulated organ procurement organization serving Utah, southern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming.
"When a family is faced with making the decision about organ donation, it's often a traumatic event," said Alex McDonald, director of public education and public relations for Intermountain Donor Services. He said a lot of people have questions and a lot of those questions stem from religion.
"As you can imagine, when you're talking about death, heaven, hell and eternity, these things are extremely important," McDonald said.
Representatives from various religions agreed Wednesday that organ donation is a very personal decision that can benefit families in many ways, but it is not a shameful thing if declined.
"Anything we can do to further life is a blessing, is a mitzvah, is a commandment," said Rabbi Ilana Schwartzman, leader of the Jewish Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City. "We know we live on in the memories of the people we knew in the world and in the acts of good we do in this life."
While different Jews follow different interpretations of Jewish law, Rabbi Schwartzman said, there is a "fairly united front" regarding organ donation. She said she encourages people to "continue to do good even after their passing," but also to plan for it and inform relatives of the decision to do so prior to the end of life.
The Rev. France A. Davis, pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, said he believes the body houses a spiritual being and that God would have the ability to gather scattered organs in the resurrection, but that men and women don't really know what a resurrected being might be. He called it a "glorified body," not necessarily having or needing parts that the physical body is composed of.
"We suggest people think seriously about how much difference they can make in the lives of others by donating their body organs, those that are useful," the Rev. Davis said.
A person must die under specific conditions — in the hospital, on a ventilator and with a brain injury — to be considered for organ donation. One organ donor can save up to nine lives, McDonald said, counting the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and small bowel. Many organs must be transported and successfully transplanted quickly after death.
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Eyes, tissue, skin, blood, tendons and bone can also be harvested from any witnessed death and be useful within about 20 hours.
For more information, or to register as an organ donor, visit yesUtah.org.
While about 75 percent of Utahns age 16 to 80 are registered as donors, conditions are right for only about 1 percent to 2 percent of all deaths, making the need for a higher number of registrants even greater, McDonald said. He said more registered people doesn't necessarily mean shorter wait times for patients, as organs are transported all over the country, helping the very sickest people in a close geographic region, pertaining to a national list of patients kept by the United Network for Organ Sharing.
"We look at how we can save the most lives," McDonald said, adding that last year was a successful year for Utahns. "We import and export a lot of organs."
In 2014, 324 organs were recovered from 102 Utahns, resulting in 324 lives saved, Intermountain Donor Services reported Wednesday.
In January, Alex Homer's life was saved by receiving a long-awaited heart.
"It was a challenge on the family to wonder if that day is ever going to come or if your child is going to pass away," said his father, a member of a West Jordan LDS stake presidency.
When a family is faced with making the decision about organ donation, it's often a traumatic event. As you can imagine, when you're talking about death, heaven, hell and eternity, these things are extremely important.
–Alex McDonald, Intermountain Donor Services
"We had counseled with our local (church) leaders and fasted and prayed as a family to know the direction that God would have us go in regard to this," said Jeff Homer. His son was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, meaning he had half a heart.
The prognosis is varied, but it led to four open heart surgeries and a transplant prior to Alex's 7th birthday.
"We, as a family, will forever be grateful that someone made a decision to say yes, that they would donate their child's heart so that my son could live," Homer said. "We know that decision is hard."
He said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides specific guidance for all its leaders pertaining to organ donation, saying that giving and receiving organs "is a selfless act that often results in great benefit." It encourages receiving counsel from competent medical professionals and a confirmation through prayer.
"My son is doing well today," Homer said. "We are so thankful every day that we get to see him and that someone made that decision."
The Rev. Martin Diaz, pastor of the Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine, said he likes to focus on "the gift of life" that someone chooses through choosing organ donation.
"We choose life and whatever we can do to help people understand that and make that gift of life possible," he said, adding the decision often compounds the difficulty of a loved one's death. The Rev. Diaz said "their loved one is not diminished in any way by having one of their organs or several of their organs offered to someone else."
Even living donations of kidneys, skin and other body tissues, he said, can benefit both the donors and the recipients.
Karla Pardini said she knew her husband wanted to pay back at least a portion of the extended life he received as a recipient of a woman's heart. Victor Pardini donated his eyes after death.
"We want people to know how important it is to continue life, to give life, that that indeed is a blessing," Schwartzman said.
