Jury awards more than $2 billion in case against pharmacist

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A jury on Thursday awarded a cancer victim $2 billion in punitive damages and more than $225 million in actual damages in her case against a pharmacist who diluted her cancer drugs.

As the jurors left the courtroom, each of them hugged plaintiff Georgia Hayes.

"We wanted to send a message out to the world that it shouldn't have happened in the first place," juror Keith Freeberg told reporters outside Jackson County Circuit Court.

Hayes' attorneys had asked for an award of about $1.2 billion against Robert R. Courtney, who has admitted weakening the chemotherapy drugs he mixed for Hayes and other patients.

After the verdict was announced, Hayes, 44, read a statement outside the courtroom thanking the jurors and her attorneys.

"Though we probably will never see a dime, I feel justice has been done," she said.

Hayes' attorneys told jurors during closing arguments Thursday morning that they needed to send a message to Courtney and the world even though it was clear Courtney doesn't have the money.