A New Mexico jury has awarded Nichelle Nichols’ family $13 million in a medical malpractice case over her death in 2022, handing down the verdict Thursday after about two hours of deliberation. The decision came in Silver City against a Grant County hospital after an eight-day trial.

Theresa Hacsi said the family had expected the verdict to be reduced and described Nichols’ hospital visit as an emergency, saying, “Miss Nichols came to the hospital for help.” She said the family believed Nichols was having a heart attack that was missed and described the conditions there as chaotic.

That verdict gives the family a large jury finding in a case tied to one of television’s most recognizable performers, but the amount they can actually collect may be much smaller. Under New Mexico’s Tort Claims Act, the maximum recovery is $400,000, a fraction of the award returned by jurors against Gila Regional Medical Center, which is owned by Grant County.

Attorneys for Nichols’ family had alleged that hospital employees failed to properly diagnose and treat her for symptoms of acute heart failure. The suit said the 89-year-old was sent home to an assisted living center, where she died hours later on July 30, 2022. The jury’s decision was returned in 6th Judicial District Court before Judge Jim Foy.

The legal fight is not finished. A separate lawsuit remains pending against HealthTech Management Service, the Oregon-based for-profit company that operated the hospital under contract with Grant County when Nichols died. That case is set for trial later this year in Santa Fe, leaving the hospital verdict as a major but incomplete chapter in the effort to assign responsibility for her death.

Nichols was best known for playing Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original Star Trek, appearing in 67 of the 78 episodes of the series from 1966 to 1969 and later in six big-screen spin-offs from 1979 to 1991. Her role helped break barriers for Black women in Hollywood, and Martin Luther King Jr. once called her a “vital role model” for African Americans seeking acceptance in mainstream society. The jury’s award closes one dispute, but the next one will decide how far the family’s victory can reach.