Hospital to appeal $28.5M verdict for former Giants RB Michael Cox

The Hospital for Special Surgery plans to appeal a $28.5 million verdict in favor of former New York Giants running back Michael Cox, a spokesperson for the hospital told Field Level Media on Tuesday.

The New York Post first reported last week that Cox won a lawsuit filed against his medical team, and the HSS confirmed the verdict amount to Field Level Media.

Cox, now 33, was a seventh-round selection by the Giants in 2013. He played in 14 games that season and four the following season before sustaining serious leg injuries in a game in Seattle.

Surgery was performed by Dr. Dean Lorich, a prominent orthopedic trauma surgeon, at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan to repair Cox's broken leg, damaged cartilage and injured ankle.

Cox sued the doctor and hospital for unspecified damages in May 2016 on the grounds Lorich didn't properly treat his ankle, bringing his career to an end. New York Presbyterian Hospital also was a defendant.

The jury that heard the case in Manhattan Supreme Court awarded Cox $15.5 million in future pain and suffering, $1 million for past pain and suffering and $12 million in lost earnings on Friday, the Post reported.

He was playing on a four-year, $2.3 million contract.

"We disagree strongly with the jury's verdict and believe it was inconsistent with the evidence in the case," a spokesperson for the HSS told Field Level Media. "We will be appealing the decision."

The HSS is an academic medical center that has specialized in orthopedics since 1863.

In 2017, Steven North, Cox's attorney at the time, told the New York Daily News that Lorich didn't properly treat the talus bone in the player's ankle.

"It was not even addressed during the subsequent office visits by cleaning it out," North told the Daily News.

"It got worse and worse and worse to a point where ultimately, Michael went to different doctors, had multiple surgeries, and his career was ruined -- he cannot play football anymore."

In December 2017, Lorich was found dead at his home in what was ruled a suicide. At the time, North told the Daily News that the suit could proceed because Lorich was covered by the hospital's insurance policy.