The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a Wood County hospital's appeal of a multimillion-dollar verdict in a case of a Mineral Wells woman who died under anesthesia during ankle surgery in 2001.

In March 2006, a Wood County jury awarded what is believed to be a record $6.5 million to the estate of Hilda Boggs, who died in 2001 after going to Camden-Clark Hospital for surgery on a broken ankle.

The jury found the anesthesiologist negligently overdosed Boggs with lidocaine, allowing the drug to reach her chest, where it stopped her heart and interrupted her breathing. Boggs later died at the hospital.

The hospital appealed the verdict to West Virginia's high court, which denied the appeal last fall. On Monday, the country's highest court followed suit by refusing to accept the appeal onto its docket.

"Camden-Clark has wasted years now in its fruitless attempts to vindicate its corporate leadership and their diabolical cover-up of what happened to Mrs. Boggs. One has to wonder when the corporation will acknowledge fault and begin working on making sure incidents like this are permanently stopped," Christopher Regan, one of the lawyers who tried the case for the Boggs estate, said in a news release.

"Camden-Clark's desperate appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States reflects its firm corporate policy of deny, deny, deny. Even now, Camden-Clark has never apologized for its terrible conduct towards [Bernard Ray Boggs, the victim's husband] and his family, nor admitted to its extensively-proven misconduct before the courts," Regan said.

Last May, Chief Wood Circuit Judge Robert A. Waters ordered the Parkersburg hospital to pay $1,359,241.02 in sanctions for violating court orders, making numerous misrepresentations, concealing important evidence and wasting "countless hours" of the court's time.

"Camden-Clark's violations of court orders, inaccurate answers in discovery, inaccurate testimony and all of its aggregated misconduct before this court, warrant substantial sanctions," Waters wrote.

The hospital appealed the sanctions to the state Supreme Court, which last month refused to overturn Waters' ruling.

A separate countersuit filed by the hospital against Bernard Boggs, which alleges that his original lawsuit was frivolous, is still pending.

To contact staff writer Andrew Clevenger, use e-mail or call 348-1723.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a Wood County hospital's appeal of a multimillion-dollar verdict in a case of a Mineral Wells woman who died under anesthesia during ankle surgery in 2001.

In March 2006, a Wood County jury awarded what is believed to be a record $6.5 million to the estate of Hilda Boggs, who died in 2001 after going to Camden-Clark Hospital for surgery on a broken ankle.

The jury found the anesthesiologist negligently overdosed Boggs with lidocaine, allowing the drug to reach her chest, where it stopped her heart and interrupted her breathing. Boggs later died at the hospital.

The hospital appealed the verdict to West Virginia's high court, which denied the appeal last fall. On Monday, the country's highest court followed suit by refusing to accept the appeal onto its docket.

"Camden-Clark has wasted years now in its fruitless attempts to vindicate its corporate leadership and their diabolical cover-up of what happened to Mrs. Boggs. One has to wonder when the corporation will acknowledge fault and begin working on making sure incidents like this are permanently stopped," Christopher Regan, one of the lawyers who tried the case for the Boggs estate, said in a news release.

"Camden-Clark's desperate appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States reflects its firm corporate policy of deny, deny, deny. Even now, Camden-Clark has never apologized for its terrible conduct towards [Bernard Ray Boggs, the victim's husband] and his family, nor admitted to its extensively-proven misconduct before the courts," Regan said.

Last May, Chief Wood Circuit Judge Robert A. Waters ordered the Parkersburg hospital to pay $1,359,241.02 in sanctions for violating court orders, making numerous misrepresentations, concealing important evidence and wasting "countless hours" of the court's time.

"Camden-Clark's violations of court orders, inaccurate answers in discovery, inaccurate testimony and all of its aggregated misconduct before this court, warrant substantial sanctions," Waters wrote.

The hospital appealed the sanctions to the state Supreme Court, which last month refused to overturn Waters' ruling.

A separate countersuit filed by the hospital against Bernard Boggs, which alleges that his original lawsuit was frivolous, is still pending.

To contact staff writer Andrew Clevenger, use e-mail or call 348-1723.