Retired subway and bus driver Stanley De Freitas had just celebrated his 70th birthday when he started coughing, tiring easily and feeling short of breath. He was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a severe scarring of the lungs, and put on the wait list for a transplant.
"Life became unbearable. From the time I got up in the morning until when I went to bed at night, I struggled through every breath of air," De Freitas, now 74, said by phone from his home in Toronto.
After two years, De Freitas was offered a lung, with one significant downside: The donor had hepatitis C.