Posted on 06/05/2026 6:18:21 PM PDT by CedarDave
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 “Star Trek” 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 were not 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’s 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 “Star Trek,” 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.
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, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
“89 was a pretty darn good run... And after all... Not everybody can be Captain Kirk still going at 95. George Takei is currently 89..”
You DESTROY your own argument.
“She was having a heart attack that was missed.”
A simple blood test would have confirmed/ruled out a heart attack. Negligence.
“The suit alleged that the hospital sent Nichols home to an assisted living center, where she died hours later”
I told you I was sick!
I hope you never get sick when you are old and the hospital kicks YOU to the curb.
I wonder how old you are?
Because tomorrow you will be 89.
Malpractice lawsuits over the death of an 89 year old person used to be uncommon.
Malpractice lawsuits over the death of an 89 year old person used to be uncommon.
Incompetent doctors used to be uncommon.
CORRECT-—A NUMBER OF TESTS TELL THE WORLD WHAT IS HAPPENING.
I think we have talked about living in Silver City.
I lived in Silver City from 1973 (short time in Las Cruses for 6 months before) and came back to Texas in 1986.
Silver City is a mining town and we never bought property there, rented.
My son was born in GRMC, it was 1/4 mile from where we lived. It was not a bad hospital while we were there.
At the time I was an outside salesman for a wholesale hardware distributor. For a number of years I was involved in local politics (I’m a Republican). I was a city councilman in Silver City for 2 years and later was the GOP Grant County Chairman. Then in 1986 we moved back to Amarillo,Texas; where my distributor’s headquarters were.
(Grant County, NM was 5 Dems to 1 Republican at the time.)
I went back to visit Silver City about 7 years ago. I have no desire to live there now.
I haven’t been back to Silver City since we moved away in 2004. A few years ago we took a trip to North Carolina to visit my wife’s family and drove to Las Cruces before heading northeast to Amarillo to get on I-40, but we didn’t detour to Silver City. Haven’t been east of Tucson since.
I lost my first wife of 47 years in 2018.
Married again 6 years ago, during the Covid madness. My wife and I are both good cooks, I took her on trip to NM to get the experience of Hatch Valley chili food. She came back a convert. Smile.
NM is totally in control by the insane left in Albuquerque. East NM is longing to annex itself to Texas (oil field). 1/2 of the revenue at state gov level comes from East NM Oil Industry. Western New Mexico (Silver City mines) also draws large portions of state revenue from Mining.
Sorry to hear about your first wife, but glad you found another to share your life with. My wife and I are only in our 26th year of marriage so far (come to think of it, we got married in Silver City).
I like NM-style Mexican food best too. One of these days I have to make a bunch of red enchiladas again, even if it does make the kitchen look like the aftermath of a chainsaw massacre.
I only miss New Mexico in the fall, when I used to buy a sack of green chiles and get them roasted out in front of the store.
Nowhere. It doesn't exist. It's a figment of the jury's imagination.
Getting a judgment is one thing ... actually collecting it is quite another.
They have an HEB grocery store in Abilene, TX that puts a burner in the parking lot and roasts a lot of them.
We usually roast ours on our BBQ grill. It works all right, if you are careful.
The soil and water in the irrigation ditches from the Elephant Butte Lake, near Truth or Consequences (Once was called Hot Springs, NM) gives the life blood to Hatch, NM.
I’ll roast a few on the gas stove from time to time, but it’s slow. We went over to Hatch one time, also the Hillsboro apple festival, nice day trip. Hatch does grow some good green chiles, though I don’t know if the irrigation water comes all the way from Elephant Butte given that the Rio Grande runs practically through Hatch. Some say that the best red chile is from Chimayo, up by Santa Fe, but my palate really isn’t good enough to tell.
The irrigation system for Hatch was long ago built for the farmers. It is the only such project that any farm group has paid off.
The ditch is not just a dirt ditch, not sure if they used pipe from Elephant Butte, that lake was built for the purpose of irrigation. Water rights in NM is critical.
Long ago William Joseph (”Wild Bill”) Donovan, used States Compact agreements to solve Western Water disputes. (somewhere around 1931) He resolved the disputes when no one before could get an agreement. The City attorney for Silver City NM was a friend of mine, when I was a councilman. We discussed this. Some of that has evaporated from my memory. The City Attorney was an expert on water rights.
There was a book I read long ago called Cadillac Desert, about water rights in the West. Interesting stuff. You’re right, water rights are a very big deal in the dry country.
Texas is very dry in West Texas. (And hot)
But our fall and winter season are nice.
I live west of Tucson. It’s been 108-110 for the highs the last week or so, and we’ll get a few days over 115 before summer’s gone. From about October until April (give or take) makes up for it, though.
That is probably more common in AZ than TX.
I have seen weeks that hit 112-116, never saw that when I was a boy.
Our climate is similar. East Texas is humid and hot, but not as hot as West Texas.
I think you guys get quite a bit colder in the winter when the winds come down from the north, too. We’ll get a few weeks of frosty mornings, but I haven’t seen anything below about 24 degrees. Snow is rare but not completely unheard of. Had a white Easter once.
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