The Doc donated his kidney to wife Dawnell Batista in June 2001. Four years later, she filed for divorce, and it's been a sticking point ever since. Thursday, January 8, 2009 NEW YORK - A New York doctor is demanding that his estranged wife compensate him for the kidney he gave to her when they were happily married. The apparent price tag on the organ: $1.5 million. Dr. Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center, says he donated his kidney to wife Dawnell Batista in June 2001. Four years later, she filed for divorce he told reporters at his lawyer's Garden City, NY office Wednesday.
The kidney fight is just the tip of the iceberg in a nearly four-year divorce proceeding between the Long Island couple. According to Batista, he has grown frustrated with the negotiations and this was the final straw.
"This is my last resort; I did not want to do this publicly," he told reporters.
Dr. Batista's attorney, Dominick Barbara also claims his client's estranged wife began having an extramarital affair nearly two years after receiving the kidney transplant.
As to whether he regrets donating the kidney, Batista, 49, says his only regrets revolve around the failed marriage.
"To this day, I would still do it again," he said.
The couple, who married in 1990 and separated in 2004, share three children.
Prisoner Begs To Go Back To Jail
A prisoner released early with an electronic tag has begged to go back to jail - because he can't stand living with his parents. Convicted ...
A prisoner released early with an electronic tag has begged to go back to jail - because he can't stand living with his parents.
Convicted thief Guido Beneventi, 30, from Italy had his sentence reduced on condition that he stayed at his mother and fathers home in Palermo, in the south of the country.
But he said that his parents constantly lectured him about his life of crime and then began ordering him around "like a child" and telling him to clean his room.
After a string of rows, he broke his curfew to flee to police headquarters and demanded to be arrested.
He told police, "You are my saviors. I just couldn't take another day with them. They spent all their time telling me how useless he was and lecturing me about everything and ordering me to do housework. It was like being a child again. Prison was better."
