Former Long Island news anchor Amy McGorry is now on the other side of the story — issuing a desperate plea for a life-saving liver donor.
McGorry, 56, has been a local favorite reporting for News 12 and TV55 while quietly battling two rare diseases — autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis — that have slowly destroyed her liver over the past two decades.
Now, doctors are telling the beloved health reporter that she’s running out of time — and needs to find a donor with O-positive blood type or she will die.
“I just feel sucker punched and stunned,” McGorry told The Post on Monday.
McGorry’s health crisis came to a head about six months ago, when she passed out and was rushed to the hospital.
She discovered that her hemoglobin, a major protein in the blood that carries oxygen throughout the body, was down to a count of 7, about half of what it should be normally.
In February, McGorry found out that she needed an organ transplant — as her liver was failing and causing dangerous internal bleeding.
“You can’t wait,” McGorry said after doctors at Weill Cornell Medicine told her about getting a new liver.
But finding one hasn’t been simple — and the former anchor now hopes a kind stranger will step forward and be a match.
Because of how PBC patients are scored on transplant waiting lists, McGorry ranks lower than those with other liver diseases, meaning she can’t afford to wait for a deceased donor.
Her only option is to find a living one — and quickly — or her failing liver will start causing other organs to shut down.
“The problem with PBC, you’re the low man on the list when it comes to getting a transplant,” said McGorry, whose GoFundMe has raised over $3,000 for her medical bills.
“You have to find a living donor willing to do it — and that’s a big ask — to go ‘can I have a piece of their liver?’” she added.
“I’m usually the one trying to help, and now I’m the one asking for it,” she said of her career covering health.
McGorry needs someone with O-positive blood, between the ages of 20 and 60, in good health and willing to undergo a minimally invasive procedure as part of an evaluation process at Cornell.
“They would be giving me a new lease on life,” McGorry said about a potential donor. “I just want to get this done and eventually put all of this behind me and live normally.”
But even in the midst of fighting for her own life, McGorry is heading to Washington, DC next month to lobby for the Living Donor Protection Act — a bill that would strengthen protections and close gaps that leave organ donors without job-protected leave during recovery.
Through her own experience struggling with her journey, she said she has seen firsthand how this bill could save people’s lives.
“Some people may want to donate, and their jobs won’t let them,” she said.
“For me, it’s not just about me, I have been trying to find a reason through all of this, the ‘why is this happening to me?’ and maybe this is my way of helping everyone,” McGorry explained.
Those interested in being evaluated as a potential donor can visit nyp.org/livingdonorliver and fill out their information with “Amy McGorry” as the recipient, with her birthdate as 10/17/1969.
