Jilted husband 'wants kidney back'
- 00:01:17
- ITN
Jilted husband 'wants kidney back'
A doctor wants £1 million compensation for the kidney he donated to his wife as the pair go through an acrimonious divorce. New Yorker Dr Richard Batista was a donor for his wife, Dawnell, in June 2001 after more than ten years of marriage, but she filed for divorce four years later. The 49-year-old father-of-three is claiming his ex had an affair with her physiotherapist and wants $1.5 million (£1m) from her which he reckons the kidney's worth. Dr Batista's lawyer, Dominick Barbara, said: "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." He said Dr Batista, a vascular surgeon at Nassau University Medical Centre on Long Island, was making the dispute public as a last resort. He went on: "The main reason the doctor is doing this is because of how he's been treated in this case." Dr Batista said: "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." He added: "She engaged in an extramarital affair and refused to go to marital counselling and reconciliation. She slapped me with divorce papers in the operating room while I was trying to save another patient's life." Dr Batista claimed his wife started the affair with a therapist she met in 2003 while recovering from a knee injury she suffered during karate lessons. The therapist denies the affair. The surgeon also said that since his wife filed for divorce in 2005, she has refused to let him see their three children, aged eight, 11 and 14. His wife's lawyer, Douglas Rothkopf, was not available for comment.
ITN | January 9, 2009
