A Florida hospital isn’t liable for chartering a plane and deporting a brain-injured patient against the will of his guardian, a jury ruled yesterday. Luis Jimenez, a Guatemalan man who was in the U.S. illegally, had been struck by a drunk driver and left with the cognitive ability of a fourth grader, the Associated Press reports . The hospital spent $1.5 million caring for the man. This kind of thing is fraught by its very nature, and this particular case drew national attention last year when it landed on the front page of the New York Times . The

judge in the case told the jury that a Florida appeals court had already found the patient had been unlawfully detained and deprived of his liberty, today’s NYT notes. But the hospital relied on a court order from a state probate judge when it repatriated Jimenez. The jury was initially divided, one juror told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel , but after considering the case over the weekend they came to the unanimous decision that the hospital did not act in an unreasonable or unwarranted manner.

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Jury Rules for Hospital That Deported Brain-Injured Patient