*A jury has sided with the estate of “Star Trek” icon Nichelle Nichols, delivering a $13 million wrongful death verdict against a New Mexico hospital, TheGrio reports.
Nichols arrived at Gila Regional in Silver City by ambulance on July 29, 2022, experiencing sudden cardiac distress. Her attorneys argued the hospital failed her from the start, bypassing the cardiac evaluation her condition required and routing her to an observation unit instead. Doctors sent her home the next day, and she died within hours.
“They didn’t do cardiac work on her, and that was needed. They put her in an observation unit, which is not where she needed to go,” attorney Lisa Curtis told KOAT in 2025. “She needed to get transferred to Las Cruces, where they have cardiologists on staff and on call and the right equipment just to diagnose her and take care of her.”
The lawsuit accused the hospital of creating conditions that blocked Nichols from receiving a proper diagnosis and treatment. Jurors found that argument compelling enough to award her estate $13 million.
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The financial reality, however, is far less dramatic. Under New Mexico’s Tort Claims Act, government-owned hospitals like Gila Regional have strict payout limits. Attorney Theresa Hacsi confirmed the Nichols estate stands to receive roughly $400,000, a fraction of the jury’s award. A second lawsuit connected to the case is still working its way through the courts.
Nichols stepped onto television screens in 1966 as something audiences had rarely seen: a Black woman commanding a prominent role in a prime-time series. Earlier Black female TV performers found themselves sidelined in domestic worker roles with little screen time. As Uhura, Nichols anchored the multicultural ‘Star Trek’ crew as one of its most integral members.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called it “the first non-stereotypical role portrayed by a Black woman in television history.”
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