Convicted rapist evaluated for heart transplant

New York - An Auburn man who is serving an 18-to-40-year state prison sentence for raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old female relative in 1996 is being evaluated for a possible heart transplant. Mercy Flight flew Kenneth Pike, 55, from Coxsackie Correctional Facility to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester last week, where 49 patients are awaiting heart transplants. If doctors approve the procedure for Pike, he would be the first inmate in New York State to receive a heart transplant. It would cost taxpayers around $800,000, according to a report by the ABC television station in Rochester. “He’s doing his time, but he’s still a human being. He still has rights,” Pikes’ sister Sharon Cardinal said in an interview. “He should be treated as much as any other person. And these people complaining about the taxpayers’ cost — well, we are taxpayers, too. We’re paying for it.”  More