Ixel Miguel never met Joseph Kotara, but she knows they share a love for outdoor activities and Top Ramen noodles. And with each beat of her heart, she knows his death saved her life.

This week, when she graduated from West Jordan High, she celebrated the achievement as theirs together.

Joseph was 13 years old when doctors discovered a tumor on his optic nerve. He died a week later in January 2002. His heart was swiftly flown from Texas to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where it was placed inside 8-year-old Ixel (pronounced eek-shel). A virus had ravaged her own heart, and she had been given six months to live.

"I honestly didn't think I would get here. I still don't believe it," Ixel, now 18, said Thursday at a graduation party at Intermountain Donor Services' Salt Lake City office, where she has become a frequent volunteer.

Joseph's parents, Sam and Susie Kotara, and his sister Amy traveled from Karnes City, Texas, to watch Ixel pick up her diploma during a ceremony Wednesday at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. The graduation itself — with 491 students — was a unique experience for the Texas family, whose home town has a population the size of two West Jordan High schools. The graduating class that would have been Joseph's had 49 students.

When Ixel's name was called, the three Kotaras erupted with applause and cheers. Amy had to struggle to hold the video camera steady because she was trying to clap and film at once.

"We weren't able to watch Joseph grow up and graduate," she told Ixel on Thursday. "To be able to see you do that, and do such great things with your life, is amazing. You will always be my heart sister."

Ixel will attend the University of Utah in the fall, with a $500 boost from the Joseph Anthony Kotara scholarship fund, which was set up by the Karnes City community after Joseph's death. She wants to become a registered nurse and work with children who are in the process of receiving organ transplants.

She already volunteers at Primary Children's, where she speaks to kids about what they can expect after their surgery. Because she takes medications to ensure her body never rejects her new heart, she has a weaker immune system and has often missed school due to illness. That encouraged her to "work twice as hard" at school, she said.

"I can tell you Ixel has fully embraced this gift of a second chance at life and run with it," said Kim Molina, one of Ixel's physicians at Primary Children's Medical Center. "It is truly remarkable and awe-inspiring to realize just how many lives she will in turn touch in the years to come."

A few years after Ixel's transplant, her mother, Adelina, and the Kotaras exchanged letters, facilitated by Utah and Texas donor-services groups. The families first spoke to one another with a Mother's Day phone call in 2008: Adelina Miguel and Susie Kotara wished each other a happy one. Miguel had named a newborn son after Joseph four months earlier.

"I don't have words to express my gratitude toward them," said Miguel, a single mom, through tears Thursday, with Ixel interpreting her Spanish. "I never thought I would see her graduate."

Joseph was the youngest of four children and already a "jack of all trades" by the age of 12, said Amy Kotara. He easily could have grown up to be a marine biologist, a stand-up comic or an inventor.

Susie Kotara is grateful to her younger sister for bringing up organ donation when Joseph was in surgery and his prospects were uncertain. Saving Ixel's life and getting to know her has been "the sweetness in our loss," Kotara said.

"Families should really be aware of what a comfort and what hope comes from organ donation," she said. "It really does make sense of a loss that you can never make sense of in any other way."

Ixel gave the Kotaras a large, crystal tear drop, a gift often given to donor families to represent tears shed both when a life is lost and when a life is saved.

One by one, the Kotaras each gave Ixel a hug, pulling close the girl Joseph saved.

rwinters@sltrib.com —

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O To learn more about organ, eye and tissue donation, or to register your wishes to become a donor. > yesutah.org