A New York heart surgeon is taking his soon-to-be-ex wife to court in an attempt to reclaim his donated kidney.
An exceptionally bitter divorce case has hit the headlines this week after a doctor summoned his estranged wife to court in an attempt to demand his donated kidney back.
Dr Richard Batista, vascular surgeon at New York’s Nassau University Medical Centre, chose to go public with his unprecedented settlement demands in a last-ditch attempt to speed up his divorce proceedings.
With the help of his lawyer Dominick Barbara he hopes to reclaim £1million ($1.5million) in compensation for the donated organ, the value he places on his ‘gift’.
"In theory we actually asked for the return of the kidney. Of course he wouldn't really ask for that but the value of it." commented Barbara in a press interview.
Batista separated from wife-of-10 years, Dawnell, in 2005 over claims she had an affair with her physiotherapist. He maintains that since serving him the divorce papers – while he was in the operating theatre carrying out heart surgery no less - she has treated him unfairly and refused him access to the couple’s three children, aged 8,11 and 14.
While neither Dawnell nor her divorce lawyer, Douglas Rothkopt, have been available for comment it is known that Batista’s donation saved his wife’s life after two previous kidney transplants failed.
Batista is on record as saying: "My first priority was to save her life. The second bonus was to turn the marriage around.
"I saved her life and then to be betrayed like this is unfathomable. It's incomprehensible."
The case, which rather unsurprisingly is the first of it’s kind, is set to be heard at the Supreme Court in Mineola, New York. However, few expect compensation to be granted as the sale of organs in the USA is forbidden.
