Hepatitis C-infected hearts and lungs can be safely transplanted, study says, opening way to more donors

Smoking cigarettes and working in the paint and drywall business for 35 years silently wreaked havoc on Pete Bucciarelli’s lungs. He didn’t learn how sick he was until 2010, after he collapsed suddenly on his living room floor.

Doctors told him he had severe emphysema, and despite surgery and other treatments, his condition deteriorated. He soon needed an oxygen tank. Cleaning his house became too taxing, nor could he go grocery shopping — a whiff of someone’s perfume or cologne made it hard to breathe. By 2017, he was on the lung transplant list.

“They told me I only had a couple months to live,” said the 56-year-old from Bethlehem, N.H. For patients like Bucciarelli, the for a lung transplant is nearly 13 months, and 40% wait longer than two years. But he was offered a