A California jury awarded a man $16.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit in which a California neurosurgeon was accused of delaying an operation on the manâ??s spinal injuries, leaving him a paraplegic. According to the lawsuit, Trent Hughes was rushed to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs in November 2003 with a spine injury. The suit claimed that doctor Christopher Pham failed to examine Hughes until the following afternoon, and put off the surgery to decompress his spine until almost 48 hours after his arrival at the hospital. By the time the surgery was performed, the damages were irreparable, the lawsuit stated.