Posted on 01/07/2009 6:26:24 PM PST by doug from upland
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
Warga/News
Dr. Richard Batista donated his kidney to his wife, Dawnell, in 2001.
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.
The couple has three children, ages 14, 11, and 8.
Dawnell Batista, 44, has suffered from failing kidneys for years and two previous transplants failed.
Against estimated 700,000-to-1 odds, her husband was found to be a match. He agreed to give her one of his kidneys at a Minnesota hospital in June 2001.
"I was the first and only one to step to the plate," Batista said.
He recalled lovingly going to visit her in the hospital room the day after the surgery.
"I was walking on a cloud and I would do it again," the doctor said.
A few years later, the marriage turned rocky and Richard Batista said his wife, a pediatric nurse, had an affair.
She filed for divorce in 2005 and the fight continues.
He claimed she tried to limit his access to their children and lawyer Dominic Barbara said they were only suing to get her to act reasonably.
The $1.5 million figure is the estimated value of a transplanted kidney, Barbara said.
"The main reason he is here is the way he was treated in this (divorce) case," Barbara said. "Had she treated him right, he would not be here today."
This should be a fun thread.
The wife in the wedding photo looked pretty hot.
Too bad, so sad. The Doc should have charged his “wife” up front for the cost of the kidney. Sounds like sour grapes to me. Any marriage these days is a poker game and the lady is holding three of kids with a kidney kicker. Time to fold.
maybe he’s just kidding.
Indian giver!
And where’s that Al Roker TV Guide?
Possession is 9/10. Maybe more!
A request for money damages doesn’t really seem proper.
A writ of replevin would seem more appropriate.
What a creep.
This guy’s attorney (if he has any ethics) must be ready to hang him.
Sorry - no givsies-backsies!
This just strikes me as a good way to get some old man judge to really side with your ex! I gave the best years of my life to my first ex, and I was grateful just to get my brain back when it was through!
Love is clearly a very fragile thing and perhaps marriage isn't for everyone, especially in a world of no fault divorce. Too bad she didn't cheat on the good Dr. before he gave her that kidney.
“Geez. I mean, I can’t stand my ex either, but she is the mother of my son. Bet this guy’s kids are gonna love him for this.
What a creep”
So he’s a creep for asking money for what he provided in marriage but his whore wife is ok for asking for money for what she DIDN’T provide.
So I just came up with $1.5 mil. Seems like a good number.
I was the wronged party for the same reason in my divorce. As hard as it is, you gotta take the high road for the kids. I'm reaping the rewards today, several years later.
LOL! “We smokem’ peace pipe.”
When Dr. Richard Batista’s wife needed a kidney, he gave her one of his.
And now that Dawnell Batista has filed for a divorce, he wants it back.
If he can’t get the kidney, his attorney, Dominic Barbara of Garden City, said Wednesday that his client wants $1.5 million - which, he said, reflects in part the value of the kidney transplant.
Dawnell Batista, 44, of Massapequa, could not be reached and her attorney, Douglas Rothkopf of Garden City, declined to comment in detail.
“The facts will speak for themselves and they’re not as represented by Dr. Batista,” Rothkopf said.
Medical ethicists agreed that the case is a nonstarter. Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics said the likelihood of Batista getting either his kidney or cash was “somewhere between impossible and completely impossible.”
Robert Veatch, a medical ethicist at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics, noted that “it’s illegal for an organ to be exchanged for anything of value.” Organs in the United States may not be bought or sold. Donating an organ is a gift and legally, “when you give something, you can’t get it back,” he said.
“It’s her kidney now and . . . taking the kidney out would mean she would have to go on dialysis or it would kill her,” Veatch said.
Barbara said his client isn’t really looking for Dawnell Batista to give back her kidney. “Does he really want the kidney back? Of course not,” he said.
Batista said his aim instead was to draw attention to her not allowing him agreed-upon visitation with the couple’s three children, ages 14, 11 and 8.
Batista, 49, of Ronkonkoma, said he donated his kidney to his wife in June 2001, after she had undergone two other failed transplants when her kidneys ceased working.
“My first priority was to save her life,” Batista said at a news conference in Garden City. “The second bonus was to turn the marriage around.”
Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center since 1992, said the marriage had been shaky because of his wife’s illness.
Initially, Batista said he was happy with his gift of life: “I was walking on a cloud. I did the right thing for her and to this day I would do it again.”
Dawnell Batista, a nurse, filed for divorce in July 2005, and her husband countersued that same year. The demand for the kidney was not part of the original countersuit, but was introduced yesterday, Barbara said.
Barbara said the $1.5 million his client feels he’s entitled to reflects damages, including how much money she made as a result of being able to continue working and not having to go on dialysis. “A price can’t be placed on a human organ but it does have value,” he said.
Caplan disagreed. “There’s nothing later you can get in terms of compensation if you regret your gift,” he said.
“Hey, Jerry! Look what I got!” LOL!
He would do give her his kidney again but he wants it back? He’s not making any sense.
After my last divorce I wasn’t sure I wanted my brain back since it obviously hadn’t been doing me much good. Now, I only use it occasionally and it has very low mileage. Can’t let it sit TOO long, though, because when I have to hook up the jumper cables to it, it’s pretty rough.
Moral of the story: You only get two kidneys but can have way more than two wives, keep the kidneys. :-)
He should have had ‘reservations’ about giving a kidney.
This “lady” has a thing for organ donors...
One -- if she gained the kidney by fraud, that should be set a value, and even if egregious -- a penalty. The timeline given does not seem to support a claim of fraud.
Two -- that he gave her a kidney, and thus impaired his own life should be considered among the lifetime costs to be divided up. I'm not speaking of the value of the gift to her, I'm speaking of the lifetime cost to him. A marriage is a mix of assets and liabilities to be divided, his missing kidney is a lifetime liability.
It's like a marriage where a spouse has accidentally harmed the other. While they stay married the burden of the harm is shared, since a marriage is a unity. But when divorced, one party carries the whole of the burden.
NY divorce law is pretty messed up, but in almost any other state he has no claim. A gift is a gift.
Instead, he "called ahead" to "arrange" an operating table.
I doubt this will have near the impact on his relationship with the kids that her refusing to allow his visitation will have, assuming that bit is true.
That's how the women afford their attorneys. They use the engagement ring as the retainer, then after the divorce is final, they use the child support to squeeze you for more.
Believe me, I hear you. I've been there, done that (minus the kidney transplant.)
We lived in one truly messed up culture dont we?
I fear for our kids.
I had a spouse of 16 years commit adultery and ruin our marriage. I say make her give it back.
Not quite. The harm she caused him was not done by accident.
It probably wasn't done on purpose either, but she did have control over the harm caused him and chose to do it anyway.
Horrible situation all around. The wife is a whore/ungrateful bitch and he’s going to be resented by his kids forever for bringing this lawsuit. Very sad.
Oh, you crack me up!
Perfect summation.
When will “Life Time Movie Channel” tell this story?
In retail — gift shops sometimes — there’s a sign that says “you break it you bought it”. Divorcees of the famous rock stars go for half the contract revenue while married. But what of the damages? Are they costed equally to the parties upon dissolution?
This one?
asshole.
Attorney Dominic Barbara is all you need know about this case.
Well, he could just issue a forgiveness of debt for 1.5 million .... IRS would be all over her for that in equivalent income.
Yup. Pretty face.
My son found out that his wife was cheating on him, and it has devastated him. She didn’t leave with his kidney though, just eight years of his life.
If her donated kidney fails, I sure hope her new beau is a match...
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