Apr. 2--CHESAPEAKE -- A Circuit Court jury has awarded a woman $2.5 million, deciding that her debilitating stroke was a result of complications caused by a doctor's misdiagnosis, lawyers involved in the case said.

The award will be reduced to $1.65 million under a Virginia law capping medical malpractice awards, the lawyers said.

Carol Johnson, now 52, suffered brain damage and can't work, said her attorney, Barry Taylor of Virginia Beach. She was a secretary and bookkeeper.

"The jury was very inflamed," Taylor said Thursday. "We only asked for 2 million, and they came back with 2.5."

Johnson had undiagnosed diverticulitis, a type of inflammation of the intestinal wall. She suffered spreading infections and eventually required surgeries.

She was a patient of Dr. Eleanor Deguzman-Berube and the Atwood Family Medical Center in 2003. Dante Filetti of Norfolk, Deguzman-Berube's attorney, said they believed the care given was appropriate but won't decide for weeks whether to appeal.

"Dr. Deguzman is disappointed," Filetti said. "We think the verdict was incorrect."

The jury's decision came Wednesday evening after a seven-day trial.

Virginia's two largest medical malpractice awards in 2009 were in Northern Virginia -- $7.4 million in Spotsylvania County and $7 million in Alexandria, said Alan Cooper, news editor of Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Both amounts were reduced to the state cap.

"It's very uncommon these days," Taylor said. "A lot of people have turned against malpractice claims because it's in the news, with health care."

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