Organ Donor Helps Give The Gift Of Life

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Michael Crozier was a loving family man.

He worked helping others as a dispatcher for the Pennsylvania turnpike. Then one day in 2008, a brain aneurysm took his life. He was 33.

"It's like getting your feet knocked out from underneath you," his mother Nancy Wolf said.

That's when Nancy Wolf got another surprise.

"Michael was an organ donor," she said.

The 33-year-old's heart, lungs, kidneys and corneas were all donated. That's how Nancy met Richard Pikunis of Mt. Laurel, N.J. nearly three years ago.

"I wanted to know who he helped out," said Wolf.

Previously the 65-year-old smoker suffered from emphysema and only had 17 percent of his lung function.

"Either you get some lungs or you don't and you'll die," said Pikunis.

It was Pikunis who received Michael's two healthy lungs at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. At the Penn Transplant Institute's annual holiday party, Pikunis and Wolf continued their unique friendship. They were among dozens of other organ recipients who have all been given the gift of life.

The Penn Transplant Institute performs about 400 organ transplants a year. It is considered one of the top leading transplant centers in the nation.

"I am so grateful," Pikunis said.

"He wanted to help others," said Wolf referring to her son.

The two families through a tragic death are now united in life.

"I have a friend for life. I love her to death," Pikunis said.

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Reported by Todd Quinones, CBS 3