Family Gives Gift of Life After Daughter's Death

Dec. 29, 2007— -- At 14 years old, Korinne Shroyer was just making the transition from pretty into beautiful when she shot herself, the victim of a serious depression. Korinne's parents were determined to make something good come of what happened.

"If her organs could be used, could help other people, could bring life to other people in desperate circumstances, then we felt that's what we were called upon to do," her father Kevin said.

So they donated her eyes, heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and lungs.

To learn more about organ donation, click here.

Korinne's lungs went to a man named Len Geiger, who had spent three years on the transplant waiting list. He had an inherited condition called Alpha-1 that was slowly taking away his ability to breathe.

Geiger did not know who had donated the lungs that saved his life. He wrote to the anonoymous family, telling them, "I am very conscious of the gift all of you have given me. My name is Len and I live in Georgia."

Korinne's father responded: "Your donor was Korinne, our 14-year-old daughter."

The letters led to face-to-face meetings. Korinne's parents made a book for Geiger, full of photos of their daughter.

"I mean, it was so emotional that I'm seeing how my life got saved," Geiger said.

Korinne's parents asked for nothing in return, except once. At the end of their very first meeting, Geiger said Korinne's mother asked if she could put her hand on his chest, and feel him breathe.

"I stood there in the parking lot with Kristi [Shroyer] with her hands on my chest, breathing, while she stood there and cried and listened to her daughter's lungs," he said.

Geiger and Korinne's parents now walk marathons together to bring attention to the value of organ donation.

Find out more about organ donation at www.organdonor.org.

ABC News' John Donvan contributed to this report.