Dr. Richard Batista, 49, and his wife, Dawnell, are getting a divorce. She filed the action, but the Long Island, N.Y., doctor has a demand too: he wants his kidney back. He donated it to her for a transplant eight years ago and, if he can’t have it back, he demands $1.5 million instead.
“I saved her life” by giving her one of his kidneys, he told reporters. “There’s no deeper pain you can ever express than to be betrayed by the person you devoted your life to,” he said, alleging Dawnell was unfaithful to him with her physical therapist. “It put a hole in my heart that still exists.”
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New York Daily News
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Postscript – the judge didn’t buy it. Suffolk County Special Referee Jeffrey Grob declared in a 10-page ruling, “At its core, the defendant’s claim inappropriately equates human organs with commodities.” Grob cited state law making it a felony for people to give or take money for a human organ. See < http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/judge-rejects-long-island-doctor-dr-richard-batista-bid-charge-estranged-wife-kidney-article-1.393669 >.