A Gwinnett County jury has awarded $5 million in damages to the family of a new mother who drowned in a bathtub at Gwinnett Medical Center.

Jeff Harris, one of the family's attorneys, said Tuesday that nurses should have checked on Wendy Wyckstandt, 34, and concluded she was too weak to shower without assistance.

Wyckstandt, a native of England who was being treated for post-partum high blood pressure, collapsed in a bathtub while taking a shower five days after Thanksgiving 2000. Her mother later found her and she died a day later. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital's parent company, Gwinnett Health System, in 2002.

Harris alleged the hospital altered medical records and kept evidence from the patient's attorneys in what stretched into a six-year legal battle.

"The hospital is still trying to dodge responsibility," he said.

Lawyers for the hospital did not return repeated telephone calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Hospital spokeswoman Andrea Wehrmann released a statement defending the lawyers and hospital.

She said nurses did properly check on their patient and no one tampered with evidence. "We understand the empathy and emotional response from the jury, however, after much analysis over the last eight years we believe the evidence does not support the verdict," she said, adding that hospital officials will appeal the verdict.

She pointed to the first trial in the case, which ended last year with a hung jury prepared to vote 11-1 in favor of the nurses and hospital.

Harris said the hospital withheld evidence during the first trial.

During the second trial, Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Michael Clark said he would sanction Gwinnett Health System for not following the rules of discovery and turning over hospital policies on showering. The judge is still trying to decide how much the hospital system will have to pay Harris' team to compensate for unnecessary research on that issue.

Harris said three cameras were mounted in the hallway outside Wyckstandt's room that show when nurses or doctors entered her room. Harris asked for video footage for the 24-hour period before her death.

He said the hospital's attorneys turned over tapes from only two cameras.

Harris also said there is a 30-minute gap when no activity is shown on the tapes, which happens to be during the same time frame the hospital claims a nurse checked on the patient.

Wehrmann said the cameras briefly weren't recording because the tapes must be switched out during shift changes.

"It don't believe it's a coincidence," Harris said. "And jurors didn't believe it was a coincidence."