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A jury in Silver City awarded a $13 million verdict in a medical malpractice case to the family of Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood with her portrayal of Lt. Uhura on the original 鈥淪tar Trek鈥� television series.

Jurors deliberated about two hours before returning the verdict Thursday against a Grant County hospital where the 89-year-old actor sought treatment in the days before her death in 2022.

Attorneys for the family alleged that employees at Gila Regional Medical Center failed to appropriately diagnose and treat Nichols for symptoms of acute heart failure.

"Miss Nichols came to the hospital for help," said Theresa Hacsi, an attorney for Nichols' family. "She was having a heart attack that was missed. It was a very chaotic environment and what services were available and what services were not available was chaos."

The suit alleged that the hospital sent Nichols home to an assisted living center, where she died hours later on July 30, 2022.

Officials at Gila Regional Medical Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment this week. GRMC鈥檚 attorney, Ryan Clement of Houston, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Nichols was featured in 67 of the 78 episodes of the original 鈥淪tar Trek,鈥� which aired from 1966 to 1969. She portrayed the smart, professional Lt. Nyota Uhura on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. She and other cast members also appeared in six big-screen spin-offs from 1979 to 1991.

The verdict followed an eight-day trial in 6th Judicial District Court before Judge Jim Foy.

Nichols' family is expected to receive only a fraction of the $13 million jury award, Hacsi said.

Hacsi said $400,000 is the maximum award the family can collect under the state's Tort Claims Act, which regulates hospitals owned by governmental agencies. Because Gila Regional Medical Center is owned by Grant County, the hospital falls under the law that was enacted in the 1970s, she said.

A second lawsuit in the case is pending against HealthTech Management Service, the company that operated the hospital under contract with Grant County at the time of Nichols' death in 2022, Hacsi said. That case, filed in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, is set for trial later this year, she said.

HealthTech, an Oregon-based for-profit corporation, argued in court records that it is not a hospital facility, provides no direct patient care, treatment or medical services for patients. HealthTech provided "no direct care to Ms. Nichols" and "did not exercise any control or authority over the licensed professionals' medical judgment," the company contends.

Nichols, a successful stage and screen actor, was among the first Black women to hold a leading role in a network television series.

A November 1968 episode featured a kiss between Nichols' character and Capt. James Kirk, played by white actor William Shatner, which was widely considered the first interracial kiss in television history, although the claim is disputed. The episode, 鈥淧lato鈥檚 Stepchildren,鈥� aired just one year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law banning interracial marriage.

Near the end of the first season of 鈥淪tar Trek,鈥� Nichols decided to leave the series to take a role on Broadway. Nichols changed her mind at the request of Martin Luther King Jr., who called Nichols a 鈥渧ital role model鈥� for African Americans seeking acceptance in mainstream society, she recalled in an interview.

Nichols' son, Kyle Johnson, said he invited his mother to move from Los Angeles to his home near Silver City in the final years of her life. Nichols lived at Johnson鈥檚 home until a short time before her death, he said in an interview last year.

Johnson said he refrained from telling hospital staff that his mother was a famous actress to help ensure she would receive priority care.

鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be an entitlement for people who are celebrities or icons or world famous," Johnson said. "It should happen for anybody who walks through the door.鈥�

Olivier Uyttebrouck covers the court system. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.