DETROIT, MI - The family of an 81-year-old woman who died after a brain surgery has been awarded $21 million by a Wayne County Circuit Court jury.

Geoffrey Fieger, the attorney for the family of Bimla Nayyar, of Belleville, announced the jury's decision Wednesday on his law firm's blog. Fieger et al alleged that Nayyar was mistakenly given brain surgery at Oakwood Hospital after being hospitalized there with jaw problems in 2012.

Fieger said Nayyar was taken to an operating room where five holes were drilled into her head and the right side of her skull was sawed out, but hospital personnel then realized "there was nothing wrong with her, but did not inform the family that they operated on the wrong patient."

Nayyar was on life support for 60 days afterward until her death, Fieger said.

Oakwood Hospital told WDIV Click on Detroit it is "very concerned about how the details of this case have been portrayed."

The hospital said it plans to appeal the jury's decision.