It's incredibly sad to hear someone die of a preventable cause this young, but I can also somewhat relate with the people who reviewed her application.

If a living donor wouldn't have been sufficient, they've now created two patients where they previously had one, and without improving the primary patient's condition. It makes sense that a donor organ from a deceased donor would be preferable.

That said, the current requirement for the patient to meet deceased donor standards for transplantation to be eligible to use a willing living donor make no sense. Both situations should have their own unique criteria, given that a living donor situation involves different risks for both the patient and the donor than a deceased donor situation would incur.

Ultimately this whole situation boils down to a scarcity situation though. If we want to solve this, it will require more people to register themselves as a donor and a review of the eligibility criteria as soon as more donors are available.