By Kelly St. John, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle

It was a touching tale that grabbed headlines. Little Miles Coulson, just 5 months old, was saved by a heart transplant over Labor Day weekend after his doctors had kept him alive with a heart pump imported from Germany.

The photographs of Miles -- with his cheeky, open-mouthed smile -- touched many people. But perhaps no one felt their tug more than Pamela Jimenez, 39, the San Francisco mother whose dead son helped Miles live.

Alexander Robert Sanchez was 11 months old, a chubby baby who was so big his uncle lovingly called him "The Tank."

Alex was playing in a walker at his aunt's house in San Francisco on Sept. 3 when he fell onto a wooden floor, knocking his head and pulling a chair down on top of him. When the ambulance arrived, he had stopped breathing. He was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, where his brain began to swell dangerously, Jimenez said.

It was clear he was going to die, she said, and she decided she would donate his organs.

She was motivated in part because Alex had his own medical problems. He was born with a condition called imperforate anus, meaning he lacked a normal anal opening. It happens in about 1 in 5,000 births. Alex had several surgeries to correct the problem -- one at just 2 days old -- and recovered in an intensive care unit.

She remembers meeting one mother there whose baby had a hole in her heart. Their only hope was a transplant. "I thought at the time, that's so sad," she said.

By Sunday, two doctors had pronounced Alex brain-dead. Jimenez and her husband, Javier Sanchez, held Alex's body for the last time. Then doctors removed his heart, lungs, pancreas, liver, kidneys and corneas, rushing them to hospitals across Northern California.

Jimenez learned that Miles received Alex's heart when news reports mentioned the heart came from an 11-month-old child. She said she was comforted -- not upset -- at learning his name, and she encourages other parents in a similar tragedy to donate their children's organs.

"It has helped my grieving," Jimenez said. "Even though it is not my child, a part of my son is still physically alive. The gift of life is a wonderful thing, and to give the gift of life is even better."

Helen Christensen of the California Transplant Donor Network, which acts as a bridge between donor families and organ recipients, said donor families and recipients who want to communicate with each other often exchange anonymous letters.

Sometimes they eventually meet, but only if they want to learn each others' identities. Face-to-face meetings usually take place six months to a year or more after a transplant operation.

Miles' mother, Leigh Bills, said she was touched to learn Alex's identity and is grateful his parents not only made the difficult decision to donate his heart but are speaking publicly about the importance of organ donation.

Bills said she plans to write to Jimenez through the California Transplant Donor Network. She's still deciding exactly what she wants to say.

"It's a tremendous gift, and we can't come up with words to thank them," Bills said. "It's such a wonderful time for us because we can start to plan for the future. But the only reason we get to look at our future in a bright way is because they lost their child.".

For information about organ donation, go online to www.ctdn.org.

E-mail Kelly St. John at kstjohn@sfchronicle.com.