FARGO (AP) - Twenty-years after a National Guard fighter jet scrambled to bring him a heart donated from Fargo, Andrew De La Pena has been reunited with the family, the governor and Guard officials who made the transplant possible.

"There's not a pulse that goes through my veins without me appreciating the gift they gave me," Andrew, who's now a student at Loyola University New Orleans, said at a news conference Tuesday. It was organized in part by LifeSource, which coordinates organ donation in the Midwest.

Karen and Steve McCann donated the organs of their 4-month-old son, Michael, who died in 1986, because they thought they could help someone.

This week, the McCann family met that someone - Andrew - and his family, of Hawaii.

Karen McCann said she couldn't stop looking at Andrew when the families met for dinner in Fargo.

"I wanted to sit there and just study him all night," she said.

The dinner was emotional, said Deborah McCarthy, Andrew's mother.

"But not overly so," said Steven De La Pena, Andrew's father. "Probably the most emotional was Andrew."

He was just 5 months old when he received the transplant. A National Guard F-4 fighter jet had to scramble to bring the infant heart from Fargo to California after a Stanford Hospital jet broke down at the Fargo airport.

Former Gov. George Sinner, Col. Bob Becklund and others recounted the dramatic flight in December 1986. Gov. John Hoeven and Sinner presented a Donor Medal of Honor to the McCanns on Tuesday.

Hoeven said North Dakota is revising its organ donor laws to honor individual choices.

"When you hear this story, you realize why it's so very, very important," Hoeven said.