Long Island doctor Richard Batista to estranged wife: Give me my kidney back or $1.5M
By LARRY McSHANE and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 5:36 PM

A Long Island surgeon who donated a kidney to his wife wants it back - or $1.5 million in cash - because she cheated on him.

Dr. Richard Batista said Wednesday he felt nothing but joy when he gave his wife, Dawnell, the lifesaving organ transplant in 2001.

"Theres no value you can put on an organ when it saves someone's life," Batista, 49, of Ronkonkoma, L.I., said at his lawyer's office. "There is no greater feeling on this planet."

Yet Batista wants his estranged wife to pay a heavy price for cheating on him and destroying their marriage.

"She slapped me with divorce papers when I was in surgery trying to save another person's life," he fumed.

Dawnell Batista could not immediately be reached for comment on the suit, believed to be the first of its kind filed in New York.



FULL STORY