A Roanoke jury awarded a verdict of more than $340,000 to the relatives of a Giles County woman who died in 2001 as a result of a botched lung removal surgery.

The jurors found Dr. Bradley Nicholson negligent in the death of 62-year-old Frances Cumbee. Their judgment determined that Nicholson should pay more than $66,000 in compensation for medical and funeral expenses and an additional $40,000 to each of Cumbee's seven children.

Nicholson worked as a general surgeon for Carilion Giles Memorial Hospital until September 2001, when the hospital suspended his privileges to operate there. That same year, the Virginia Board of Medicine reprimanded him for unprofessional conduct that endangered his patients' health, citing Cumbee's case as one of the more egregious examples.

Cumbee's family first filed their $3 million lawsuit in 2002. The case went to trial three times. The first trial, in June 2006, was declared a mistrial because of evidence issues. The second trial, in February, ended with a hung jury. The third trial began Dec. 11. The jury returned its verdict Dec. 17.

Patricia Donathan, one of Cumbee's daughters, said the family's objective was to publicize how Nicholson's negligence led to her mother's death. "I wouldn't care if we didn't get a penny," she said. "No amount of money is going to help the pain."

Nicholson's attorney, Walter Peake, said his client does not intend to appeal. Nicholson retired in 2005 after working at a hospital in Stuart and now lives on a Giles County farm, his attorney said. Nicholson regrets that Cumbee's surgery resulted in tragedy but maintains he did nothing negligent, Peake said.

According to court documents, Cumbee was admitted to the Giles County hospital on July 17, 2001, to undergo surgery to treat cancer in her left lung.

Hospital staff have testified that Nicholson scheduled the procedure as a chest incision, not as a lung removal, and that the surgical staff did not know he intended to remove Cumbee's left lung until the procedure was under way.

Trey Smith, attorney for Cumbee's estate, said he presented evidence that Nicholson had not asked for a blood supply to be prepared ahead of time, nor were there any vascular clamps in the operating room. During the surgery, Nicholson cut into Cumbee's pulmonary artery, causing a large loss of blood, and there was a delay of about half an hour while the staff scrambled to find and authorize a replacement blood supply, Smith said.

Peake said that as the hospital's general surgeon Nicholson had performed lung operations before. But Smith said the hospital could not find any documentation that Nicholson had ever performed that type of lung surgery.

The lawsuit alleged that Nicholson didn't have the proper training to perform the surgery and that the Giles hospital did not have the proper equipment for the procedure.

An anesthesiologist present at Cumbee's surgery, Dr. Michael Goodrich, testified that the lung removal should not have been attempted at the Giles County hospital, Smith said.

The extreme blood loss caused Cumbee to go into cardiac arrest and left her with brain damage. She was released into the care of one of her daughters, but never regained consciousness and died eight days later. Nicholson did not dictate his notes about the operation until about six weeks later, Smith said.

Peake said that Nicholson was disappointed by the jury's verdict. Cumbee's death resulted from unintended but recognized complications of the procedure, the attorney said.

A document from the Virginia Board of Medicine's investigation into Nicholson states he violated medical procedure by not referring Cumbee to a surgeon qualified to perform lung surgery. He also violated procedure by not ordering the typing and screening of Cumbee's blood ahead of time, and by not mentioning her cardiac arrest in his notes about the operation.

The document also states that Nicholson had a pattern of turning in notes about his operations late. In three cases, doctors treating patients Nicholson had operated on did not have access to any notes about their surgeries.

The board also investigated accusations that Nicholson was operating while impaired by alcohol, but dismissed the allegation due to lack of evidence.