At one point he loved her so much he gave her his kidney - now a sensational divorce has goaded him into demanding it back.

A New York doctor has taken his estranged wife to court to theoretically demand she give him his kidney back - or pay him $1.5million in compensation.

Dr Richard Batista - a prominent Long Island vascular surgeon, Cornell graduate, and father of three - gave his wife his kidney when she suffered renal failure in 2001 in a desperate bid to save her life - and, ironically, their marriage.

But, though Dawnell Batista lived, the marriage gamble failed.

Now she has filed for divorce and he has accused her of having an affair.

'There is no deeper pain you can ever express than betrayal from someone who you loved and devoted your whole life to,' Dr Batista, 49, told local media.

The pair met two decades ago while he was a resident and she a training nurse.

They fell in love and married in 1990, and had three daughters. But the marriage slowly began to fall apart.

Even so, in 2001, when Mrs Batista, a nurse, had gone into renal failure, her husband did not think twice.

'She was my wife. My priority was to save her life, save her life and future of our children and hopefully with that in mind keep the marriage alive,' he said.

'When I donated the next day on my feet going down hallway to visit her in adjoining room, there was no greater feeling on this planet,' he told CBS.

'As God is my witness, I felt I could put my arm around Jesus Christ. [It was] unbelievable. I was walking on a cloud. I did the right thing for her to this day. I could still do it again.'

Then, Mrs Batista filed for divorce in 2005. Now Dr Batista is accusing her of having an affair and throwing him out of their million-dollar Massapequa home.

He claimed he was suing for the kidney because his wife is now denying him contact with their three children, ages 8, 11 and 14.

'I saved her life,' he told reporters. 'This divorce is killing me.'

So far Mrs Batista has not publicly commented.

Doctors told CBS that an operation to return the kidney was not only unethical but nearly impossible.