A college classmate of mine got a heart-lung transplant at about the same age. I did not hear that the donor was a smoker. He too died shortly after. These operations are not trivial, and a life with CF leaves a weakened body, transplant or no transplant.
If one is on a waiting list, for 18months, I don't think you get to be too picky.....
she might have died from her CF complications alone within a few months....
so taking some lungs, even though from a smoker, is a no brainer...no one could predict that the lungs would be cancerous....
not everything works out, but the intentions and reasoning probably were correct...