An Iowa boy donated his heart to this Ohio teen. 5 months later, he died on the first day of school.

Blanca Gudino-Marin still has the text message that an Ohio teenager — the recipient of her youngest son's heart through organ donation — sent her last Thursday morning.

“Hey, it's my first day of school. I'm in eighth grade,” the message read.

Communicating back and forth was a daily ritual between the pair.

But hours later, the 48-year-old Marshalltown mother learned the tragic news about the 13-year-old she met for the first time three months ago: He collapsed on the way to school and died.

"It was like I lost both of my kids now," Gudino-Marin told the Register on Wednesday night through her oldest son, Victor Cisneros.

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Gudino-Marin's son, Derek Cisneros, died from injuries suffered in a car crash March 5 in Jasper County. A report from the Iowa State Patrol said a truck failed to yield and pulled out in front of the vehicle containing Cisneros, Gudino-Marin and Cisneros' father, Victor Cisneros-Bravo.

All three were transported to a Des Moines hospital, but Cisneros was declared brain dead following the crash, the Newton Daily News reported. He was taken off life support March 7, and his family decided to donate his organs.

He was 12 years old.

"We never had (donating his organs) in mind," Gudino-Marin explained. "But I believe God did his work for us. It just came in our heads to donate his organs and it was a family decision."

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Peyton West of Goshen, Ohio, underwent three open-heart surgeries before he was 5 as a result of a congenital disability called hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Dr. Emile Bacha, chief officer of cardiac surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told CNN the disability means "you're born missing the left side of the heart."

"Instead of having two ventricles, you only have one ventricle," he said.

West nearly died after his third surgery, CNN reported. He sustained brain damage and relearned how to talk and walk.

Everything seemed fine until last December when West checked in for a regular cardiology appointment, The Washington Post reported. Doctors said the right side of West's heart was failing fast. His only hope was a heart transplant.

West and his family waited months for a positive update. Then, on March 9, he found his donor.

Cisneros.

"I'm getting my new heart today," West revealed on a Facebook Live video. 

The two families met over a May weekend in Cincinnati — two months after the transplant. It was a goal of Gudino-Marin's: having the opportunity to meet the heart recipient.

They came face to face for the first time in a public park. West was overcome with joy and ran right toward Gudino-Marin and her family.

It was like they already knew each other.

"He showed his love to us as Derek did, constantly telling us that he loved us and how much he appreciated us," Gudino-Marin said. 

Derek's brother Victor Cisneros said "it felt like a big family." They ate at restaurants together, played video games and visited an aquarium. They tried spending as much time together as they could during those three days.

And when ears were pressed against West's chest, hearing his heart brought "a lot of mixed emotions."

"The way he acted, the way he reacted with us, and the way he behaved with us was almost the same as how my brother did," he said.

West was headed to his first day of school Aug. 17 as an eighth-grader at Goshen Middle School, the Enquirer reported. West's older brother was driving when West said he didn’t feel well and suddenly collapsed. Emergency crews arrived shortly after and rushed him to a local hospital.

West didn't have a heartbeat, The Post said. Doctors tried reviving him for more than two hours. He died at 10:45 a.m. The cause of West's death remains unknown pending autopsy results. 

West's father, Corey West, told the Post his son "had an awesome five months" before his abrupt death. 

"Without that organ donation," Corey West said, "we wouldn't have had these five months for Peyton to live like he hadn't lived before.”

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Corey West told CNN Peyton developed a passion for Mexican food, and soccer became his new favorite sport over football.

"Peyton thought: 'Hey, if Derek loved soccer, then I love soccer,'" Corey West said.

" ... He always said, 'I wish I could have met Derek,' and you know, now he's in heaven playing soccer and football with Derek."

The Wests are planning to come to Iowa in November.

Gudino-Marin and family drove nearly nine hours to Ohio for West's visitation and funeral Wednesday. She said it was amazing but also surprising to see just how much love surrounded West.

She'll remember West exactly as she does her own son. The two boys had similar attitudes, emotions as well as the way they looked at life.

"They are both angels," Gudino-Marin said.

Aaron Young is a reporter at The Des Moines Register, focusing on what Iowans are talking about on the internet and on social media. Follow @AaYoung15 on Twitter and on Facebook: Facebook.com/AaronYoung28.