LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A jury Thursday night awarded nearly $1.4 million in damages to a mother whose premature baby was decapitated during delivery at a Louisville hospital in 2006.

Under the verdict, reached after about five hours of deliberation, the two doctors involved must pay the mother, Micheatria Donelson, the $1.4 million for pain and suffering.

The hospital and the nurses involved in the case were not held liable, and the jury declined to award punitive damages.

The damages were much less than the $18 million that Donelson had sought. But one of her attorneys, Mark Mathys, said the verdict was a "vindication" for Donelson, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

"This is a clear victory for Micheatria," he said. "This is a significant amount of money that will help her for the rest of her life."

Attorneys for Norton Suburban Hospital said they were pleased with the decision but declined to comment further.

But Terry Lee, a nurse in labor and delivery at Norton who sat with the hospital's attorneys through the trial and had sutured the baby's head back on, praised jurors for their work in "a very complicated" and emotional case.

"I felt like we did the best we could," she said of the nursing staff during the Feb. 24, 2006, delivery. "It was a very difficult situation, and I feel for Ms. Donelson too. It was a very difficult case for everybody."

Donelson, who testified earlier in the trial and was in court for the closing arguments, was not present for the verdict.

Dr. Joseph Bilotta and his partner, Dr. William Koontz, also were not in court for the verdict, and their attorneys did not comment afterward.

The jury, which was not unanimous, found Koontz 57 percent responsible for the $1,362,499 in damages and Bilotta 43 percent responsible.

The jurors -- six men and six women -- declined to comment, with one saying they had agreed not to speak with the news media.

Earlier Thursday, Don Darby, one of the doctors' attorneys, told the jury during closing arguments that while the delivery was an "unfortunate tragedy," the doctors did nothing wrong.

Everyone involved in the case agreed it was a rare, if not unheard of, situation in which a fetus is decapitated during birth.

"It could not have been predicted or prevented by nursing care," Beth McMasters, an attorney for Norton and the nurses who were in the delivery room, said in her closing argument.

Darby told the jury that the baby would not have survived regardless of what the doctors and nurses did, because the pregnancy was only about 21 weeks in duration.

"I don't think you can come to any other conclusion," he said.

Donelson's attorneys, however, believe she was about 24 weeks into the pregnancy, an age at which babies can survive.

Donelson's attorneys contended that Bilotta failed to remove a cerclage, a string similar to a shoelace, that was used to keep Donelson's cervix closed and the child in the womb.

When Donelson began delivering, the string acted "as a noose" and helped cause the decapitation when Bilotta pulled on the child, Mathys has said.

But Bilotta testified that while he initially attempted to deliver the baby with the string still in, he removed it. And he told jurors it would be "physically impossible" to deliver the child through the string.

Donelson's attorneys also have said nurses ignored her buzzer calls seeking help as the baby began emerging and then compounded problems by not restricting her view during delivery and later suturing the child's head onto the body so she could hold him throughout the night and next day.

"No one prepared her for what was going on," Mathys said in his closing argument. "The reason that this is never heard of is because it doesn't happen unless somebody does something wrong."

Bilotta said using drapes to shield the mother from seeing a delivery was common decades ago, as part of sterilization, but for him it's not "a concern or thought anymore."

Darby told jurors the allegations were "all retrospective" and that no one could have predicted or anticipated what was going to happen.

Donelson's body "rejected this fetus, that's what happened," he said.

And McMasters said the nurses did not deliver the baby and provided appropriate care, never abandoning or "ignoring" Donelson.

"The nurses went right in" when Donelson began delivery, she said, adding that the mother had the right to see her child and requested to do so.

"Every single nurse took good care of Ms. Donelson," McMasters said.

Earlier in the trial, Donelson said she had gone to Norton because of bleeding on Feb. 23, 2006, and Bilotta told her the next day that it was likely that her child was not going to live.

After calling her boyfriend to tell him the news, Donelson testified Friday that she began to cry and after coughing, the child began to come out, feet first.

She testified that she called for nurses "but no one came, and I felt him kicking and I called again," alleging the doctor and nurses came in about five minutes later.

"I was just sitting there waiting for them to come help my baby that was kicking and trying to come out," Donelson testified.

Donelson, who now has a 2-year-old daughter, said she is depressed, has panic attacks and is unable to sleep more than a few hours each night.

"I know when I go to sleep I'm going to have the same nightmares," she said.

Mathys told jurors that Donelson had gone to school to work with children but abandoned that career after the incident.