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Judge awards bone cement victims

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge awarded a New Mexico woman $2.3 million for the pain, suffering, loss and disability she still experiences a decade after a minimally invasive spine surgery. The Albuquerque Journal reports U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Robert H. Jacobvitz of Albuquerque awarded Patricia Rue her amount and three other former patients another $10 million in damages, after finding that Quorum Health Resources of Tennessee breached its duty to prevent harm to bone cement spinal treatment patients at Gerald Champion Regional Hospital from 2007 to 2008. The damage assessment against Quorum, which supplied top executives for the hospital, is the first time in the protracted litigation that a judge has determined the amount of harm suffered by individual plaintiffs. Quorum, through its attorney, did not immediately return a request for comment. ___ Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com