A jury this afternoon awarded nearly $3 million to a Portland-area couple whose daughter was born with Down syndrome even though a prenatal test found she didn't have the chromosomal abnormality.

The jury voted 12-0, taking less than six hours before reaching a verdict in the case of Ariel and Deborah Levy vs. Legacy Health System. The decision capped a 10-day highly emotional trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

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The money will cover the estimated extra lifetime costs of caring for a child with Down syndrome.

Deborah Levy, who had held her emotions in check throughout the trial, began to cry as Judge Karin Immergut read the verdict. The couple nodded and mouthed "thank you" as jurors filed out of the courtroom. A few nodded back, smiled or reached out a hand toward the Levys. One juror visibly held back tears. Another wished them peace.

After jurors left the room, Ariel and Deborah Levy shared a long embrace.

The couple sued Legacy Health, claiming that Deborah Levy would have aborted her pregnancy had she known her daughter had the chromosomal abnormality.

The case was one of just a handful of so-called "wrongful birth" suits estimated to be filed each year in the United States, bioethics experts say. It was one of an even rarer few to go to trial -- and garner a multi-million dollar verdict. In the process, the case stirred passionate public debate nationally and even internationally. The judge prohibited media in the courtroom from photographing or recording images of the couple, whose attorney said had received death threats.

Experts say so few parents choose to file wrongful birth suits because it forces them to take an awkward position: They must be willing to say on the record that they would have aborted the pregnancy, and that they feel a burden -- albeit financial -- of raising the child.

The Levys' attorney, David K. Miller, said his clients deeply love their daughter but worried about being portrayed as heartless. Miller said they sued because they worried about providing all that their daughter would need over her lifetime. Experts testified that she will continue to need speech and physical therapy and face a concerning list of possible medical problems over her lifetime. Professionals have told the Levys that she will likely never be able to live independently, or earn a living.

According to several studies, 89 percent or more of expectant mothers who learned their children would have Down syndrome chose to terminate the pregnancies.

Jurors said they found Legacy Health negligent on five fronts, including that the doctor who performed the prenatal test took too small of a sample from Levy's womb to be useful. They concluded that employees -- including the doctor who took the sample and lab workers who analyzed it -- failed to communicate, leading to the erroneous result.

"I don't think there's a winner in this," said one juror, who like others, declined to be named because of the high profile of the case.

The Levys spoke of the challenges of raising a special-needs child, including concerns about her health, her ability to communicate and whether she'll get the attention she needs once she starts public-school kindergarten in the fall.

"I have two children," the juror said, "and it's hard to watch another mother, another family, go through all that."

The Levys were the parents of two young boys when in November 2006 they were surprised to learn Deborah Levy was pregnant again. Because she was 34, she and her husband were concerned about the possibility of genetic disorders. Experts testified that about 1 in 250 women that age give birth to a baby with Down syndrome. A first-trimester screening estimated Deborah Levy's chances were even higher: 1 in 130.

Roughly 13 weeks into her pregnancy, Deborah Levy went to Legacy's Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in North Portland, where Dr. Thomas Jenkins performed a prenatal test called chorionic villus sampling, or CVS for short. A Legacy lab tested a small amount of tissue that the doctor had removed from Levy's womb. The results showed the Levy's daughter had a normal chromosomal profile.

Although in the following weeks two ultrasounds showed abnormalities that sometimes indicate Down syndrome, the Levys testified they were assured that their daughter would not have the chromosomal abnormality. Legacy staff did not advise them to get an amniocentesis, which is another prenatal test that detects Down syndrome.

Within a week of their daughter's birth, they were devastated to find out that the girl, Kalanit, did indeed have Down syndrome.

The Levys contended that Dr. Thomas Jenkins removed maternal tissue -- not fetal tissue -- during the CVS procedure. The suit alleged that Jenkins and lab workers didn't recognize that the tissue was from the mother.

Legacy's attorney, Robert Keating, called on experts who said the CVS was properly done, and that the results showed the girl has a normal genetic profile because she has mosiac Down syndrome, meaning a significant number of her cells don't contain an extra 21st chromosome.

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