The late Jim Avila had a kidney transplant in 2018, after his brother donated his organ. The veteran TV journalist suffered from advanced kidney disease and underwent surgery in April 2018.

TV journalist Jim Avila, a former senior news correspondent for ABC News, has died. He was 69. Avila, who also appeared as a correspondent on the ABC series "20/20," died after a "long illness," "ABC News Live" anchor Diane Macedo announced on Thursday, Nov. 13. Additional details on Avila's condition were not disclosed.

He spent almost two decades at the network, covering a wide range of court cases and the White House. He was also at the center of a defamation lawsuit over “pink slime.”