Doctors seek to lift barriers to organs from living donors

WASHINGTON — Surgeons turned down Terra Goudge for the liver transplant that was her only shot at surviving a rare cancer. Her tumor was too advanced, they said — even though Goudge had a friend ready to donate, no matter those odds.

“I have a living donor — I’m not taking away from anyone. I’m trying to save my own life,” she pleaded. Finally, the Los Angeles woman found a hospital on the other side of the country that let the pair try. Both recovered well.

People lucky enough to receive a kidney or part of a liver from a living donor cut years off their wait for a transplant, and those organs also tend to survive longer.