ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOX) – Heavy smoker? Bet you never thought your lungs could be used in a transplant.

A new study out of Temple University has caught the eye of Barnes Jewish and Washington University pulmonolgist Dr. Ramsey Hachem.

“As we suspected using lungs from donors who smoke, as long as the rest of the evaluation of those donor lungs are satisfactory, that’s acceptable in terms of outcome after transplant,” said Dr. Hachem.

This study found these lungs were acceptable — even if the donor smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for twenty years. This finding, Hachem says, may help decrease the shortage of donor lungs.