Church shooting victim gives patient a new lease on life

NEWARK, N.J.-A 21-year-old man with cystic fibrosis walked out of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center on Wednesday (Dec. 3) with a pair of new lungs, courtesy of the family of a man shot and killed when he intervened in a domestic dispute at a church last month. The recipient, John Muscarella, said he felt sad […]

NEWARK, N.J.-A 21-year-old man with cystic fibrosis walked out of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center on Wednesday (Dec. 3) with a pair of new lungs, courtesy of the family of a man shot and killed when he intervened in a domestic dispute at a church last month.

The recipient, John Muscarella, said he felt sad but thankful for the donor.


“He was a great guy for trying to help and do what he did,” Muscarella said, adding he was proud to have Dennis John Malloosseril’s lungs.

“It makes me feel good,” he said. “I’m thankful he was an organ donor and grateful to get lungs from him that are in such good condition. I’m really grateful to his family and sorry for their loss.”

Malloosseril was fatally shot during services at St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton, N.J., on Nov. 23 when he intervened in an argument between Reshma James, 24, and her estranged husband, Joseph Pallipurath of Sacramento, Calif. James was killed, and her cousin, Silvy Perincheril, 47, was shot and remains hospitalized.

Pallipurath fled after the shootings but was caught at a motel in Georgia late the next day. He was due to be returned to New Jersey.

Muscarella’s double-lung transplant was performed during a six-hour operation the day after the shootings.

“Due today to the generosity of the organ donor’s family and the skill of this (transplant) team, John has an opportunity for a new life,” said Sean Studer, medical director of the lung transplant program at Beth Israel.

The transplant was the third performed at the hospital since the inception of its lung transplant program earlier this year. Beth Israel officials said it is the only hospital in the state that performs lung transplants.

The recipient said he was “feeling pretty good,” a far cry from the breathing difficulty he endured with lungs damaged by cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that allows mucus to build up in the body, especially the lungs. It affects some 30,000 children and adults in the United States, and 70,000 worldwide, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

“Living with it is pretty hard,” Muscarella said. “I couldn’t go outside or run and play much. I couldn’t even walk around without being out of breath. Now I can walk around with ease. I can do 30 laps with no problem.”


His cystic fibrosis had worsened after he finished high school and began working, he said. Without the double lung transplant, “it could deteriorate more and I could eventually die.”

Studer said Muscarella would have faced increasing risk of lung infections.

“Certainly his prognosis within the next one to two years without a transplant was quite pessimistic,” the doctor said.

Muscarella said the transplant has given him “a new outlook on life.”

“I’ll never take anything for granted; live life for the moment,” he said. As for his plans, he’d “probably go back to school and take some trips to places I’ve never been to before.”

The donor’s aunt, Suja Alummoottil, said the family was “very proud of Dennis that he’s going to live on through all of the organs that he’s donated.” His heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys went to other recipients in New Jersey hospitals.

“He was a little guy with a big heart, she said of her nephew. “He was known for putting the needs of others above his own. And I know he would have wanted to help even after his death.”

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