# Woman gets transplanted lungs from 30-year smoker **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292 "2010-06-15T13:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/1 "2010-06-15T13:42:00Z")
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu\_britain\_donated\_smoker\_s\_lungs](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_britain_donated_smoker_s_lungs) Words fail me. Unless this was some desperate do-this-now-or-she-dies situation, this seems seriously screwed up. Now she can have the benefit of 30 years of smoking, and all their assorted risks, without having to ever smoke a cigarette. Can you imagine selling Used Lungs? “These lungs belonged to a little old lady from Pasadena who only smoked on Sundays” ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/2 "2010-06-15T13:45:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Can you imagine selling Used Lungs? To be fair, the un-used lungs are usually too small to fit. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/3 "2010-06-15T13:46:55Z")
Eh - lung transplants aren’t something you do for kicks. This almost certainly _was_ a do-it-ASAP-or-you’ll-die situation. People with cystic fibrosis, in particular, tend not to make it past early adulthood with a transplant. And it’s a nasty death, too. Good rule of thumb for a lung transplant survivor: If you’re still capable of complaining, don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/4 "2010-06-15T13:49:45Z")
Wait - should have read the article. The recipient died. Oh well. Organ supplies are limited, especially since they don’t keep long. You take the organs you can get from the people who happen to have died recently, or wait for the next one -whenever that might be. And unless the smoker died of lung cancer, I’d take smoker-lungs over cystic-fibrosis lungs any day of the week. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/5 "2010-06-15T13:55:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Wait - should have read the article. The recipient died. Died of pneumonia, no less. I’m sure there are sound medical reasons for using these lungs, but if I got 'em, _I’d_ be freaked. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/6 "2010-06-15T14:25:02Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Wait - should have read the article. The recipient died. On my first parse, I thought it said that the smoker had died of pneunomia and _really_ wondered what the hell they were doing transplanting those lungs. But out of curiosity, this was posted in the story’s comments section: > [@](#): > > The lungs of a former smoker may actually have advantages over non-smoker lungs. The body does what is referred to as upregulate when presented with challenges. A smoker, who temporarily turns the lung cilia off, may actually cause an upregulation in the number of cilia present. This could actually be beneficial to a transplant patient. When a person recieves a transplant they are also put on intense immune suppression drugs to help prevent rejection. Having stronger mechanical means to clean out disease causing nasties could be beneficial to a transplant patient who will not have the benefit of the immune system to take care of it for themselves. Can anyone corroborate the anonymous internet person’s info? ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/7 "2010-06-15T18:16:29Z")
I can’t say as I’d be thrilled to get smokers lungs, but I would think if I was desperately in need of the transplant I’d be willing to take the risk. The risks of lung transplantation for CF patients are high, and pnuemonia is a common cause of death, so I don’t know how they can possibly know if her death is attributable to the condition of the lungs or not. Also, aren’t donors generally unknown to the recipient? How did they ever find out that the person was a 30-year smoker? In the article it says the woman would have ‘lodged a complaint’, but is there any reasonable expectation of full disclosure about your donors lifestyle and overall health? I also like how quickly and predictably the anti-socialized medicine people came out in the comments for that article - as if something like this could _never_ happen in America. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/8 "2010-06-15T18:19:48Z")
I’d be happy to get a 30-year smoker’s lungs if I’d been smoking for 40. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/9 "2010-06-15T18:43:51Z")
If it was get a smoker’s lungs or definitely die, I’d take Door #1. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/10 "2010-06-15T18:50:48Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > If it was get a smoker’s lungs or definitely die, I’d take Door #1. Hell, I’d take the smoker’s lungs, the psychopath’s heart, and the CRAZY RIGHT HAND of a madman, if it would give me but another hour of sweet, sweet life. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/11 "2010-06-15T19:11:04Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Hell, I’d take the smoker’s lungs, the psychopath’s heart, and the CRAZY RIGHT HAND of a madman, if it would give me but another hour of sweet, sweet life. Another hour of fighting of the crazy hand that’s trying to kill ya? ---
**Author:** ![wolf-alice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9e8a1a/32.png) [@wolf-alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf-alice)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/12 "2010-06-16T09:26:56Z")
This is really weird; my Dad shares the same name as _her_ Dad and my parents have got about thirty calls from journalists over the last three days, some from Canada and America and so on. “How do you feel about this, Mr Scott?”. How do you _suppose_ the poor sod feels! I hope they never get the right number. Vultures. /Cool story bro. And yeah, it’s a terrible shame but CF is a terrible shame all round, and transplants _are_ a do-or-die scenario. I’d rather have smoker’s lungs than CF lungs. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/13 "2010-06-16T09:34:13Z")
Did she actually die from complications associated with the smoking though? Isn’t death from pneumonia quite common in people who have had a lung transplant? Of course, I don’t think the family’s complaints (judging by the video on BBC news) are that she was given smoker’s lungs, which apparently is within national guidelines, but that she was never told that the lungs came from a smoker. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/14 "2010-06-16T17:56:18Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > Another hour of fighting of the crazy hand that’s trying to kill ya? Sure, why not? It’d make for a fun story at the wake, if nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/15 "2010-06-16T23:50:36Z")
I find it really hard to believe they’d have given her those lungs if they had any other choice. There’s no guarantee that the lungs were actually badly-damaged, either; would the doctors have bothered if they were? They’re not in a competition to see how many transplants they can do in one day. At least, I presume not… TBH I never thought that all donated organs would be completely perfectly healthy; completely perfectly healthy people don’t die in large enough numbers for that. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gets-transplanted-lungs-from-30-year-smoker/543292/16 "2010-06-16T23:58:39Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Of course, I don’t think the family’s complaints (judging by the video on BBC news) are that she was given smoker’s lungs, which apparently is within national guidelines, but that she was never told that the lungs came from a smoker. How much disclosure about the donor is normal in transplant scenarios? I thought they were considered anonymous. I can’t watch the video now - do the parents ever mention how they came to find out that the lungs came from a smoker?