Long Island TV reporter Amy McGorry to get new liver after live donor comes forward

Amy McGorry, the longtime Long Island TV reporter in desperate need of a liver transplant, got some life-changing news on Monday.

Doctors at Weill-Cornell Medicine told her they found a live liver donor who is a match. The donor, who is anonymous, is a woman who is not related to McGorry, she said. The surgery is planned for June.

McGorry, 56, who works at NewsdayTV, said she got the call while teaching her health sciences class at LIU Post in Brookville.

"I broke down and cried," she told Newsday. "I couldn’t believe someone would come forward and do this for me ... I walked back into my health sciences class and they all clapped."

McGorry, of Sea Cliff, has been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases since college: autoimmune hepatitis and about a decade later, primary biliary cholangitis, a disease of the bile ducts that causes them to scar and narrow. She had a series of health episodes since last summer that worsened her condition. In February, she was told she needed a new liver.

Experts said her best chance was trying to find a live liver donor because the wait on the transplant list for a deceased donor was very long. A person can donate a piece of their liver to someone who needs a transplant. The liver will regrow to regular size in both the recipient and the donor.

Live donors must be in good physical and mental health, and have a blood type that is compatible with the recipient.

The liver will start to regenerate right after surgery and return to regular size in eight to 12 weeks, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Experts said donors heal faster than they used to because smaller incisions are needed with robotic and laparoscopic surgery.

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which maintains a national organ registry, about 9,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for a liver. About 1,700 die each year while waiting for a liver transplant, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

In 2025, the majority of liver transplants — 11,635 — took place with organs from deceased donors. At the same time, liver transplants with organs from living donors hit an all-time high at 709, according to OPTN data.

McGorry said she needs to spend the next month building endurance and mentally preparing for the surgery, which is expected to last at least eight hours.

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.