Katharina Buczek
Unfortunately, there is always a shortage of organ donors. In fact, according to the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), there are currently about one hundred and six thousand men, women, and children hopefully awaiting a donor organ on the national transplant waitlist.
And sadly, about seventeen people die every single day waiting for their transplant.
So, if a patient is in need of a non-essential organ, it is not unheard of for loved ones who are a biological match to offer their own.
These living donations are most common with kidneys, where a healthy donor with two functioning kidneys can give one to a family member with little to no kidney function.
This is possible since people are able to live with just one kidney, even though they are at an increased risk for illness and injury for the rest of their life. Nonetheless, when a loved one’s life is at stake, people tend not to second-guess this decision.
Interestingly, though, one man named Dr. Richard Batista did just that after donating a kidney to his wife back in 2001.
Richard worked at Nassau University Medical Center in New York as a surgeon before meeting his wife, Dawnell, in 1990. They eventually got married and had children before her health sadly declined.
So, in 2001, Richard decided to donate one of his kidneys. And following the surgery, Dawnell recovered amazingly– making this a true success story of love in sickness and in health.
However, come 2005, the couple’s marriage had apparently taken a turn for the worst. Dawnell was the one who filed for divorce; meanwhile, Richard claimed she had been unfaithful for the past two years of their marriage.
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