CLEVELAND - A jury ordered the Cleveland Clinic to pay $2.5 million to the family of a woman who died during a liver biopsy.

        Fahima Seleman, 62, of Toledo, went to the hospital in 1998 for the outpatient procedure, which involves inserting a needle-like instrument to grab a tiny bit of internal tissue for testing.

        The doctor missed the liver and instead pierced Mrs. Seleman's lung. She coughed up blood and died within minutes.

        “She was drowning in her own blood,” said Charles Kampinski, the family's lawyer.

        The jury in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court found the clinic liable Friday after a four-day trial.

        Mr. Kampinski said that under the hospital's own policy, the young doctor, William Bauer, was not experienced enough to do biopsies on transplant patients like Mrs. Seleman, who had received a new liver in 1996.

        William Bonezzi, a lawyer for the clinic, argued that the procedure was done correctly, but as Dr. Bauer inserted the needle, Mrs. Seleman took a breath, shifting the liver and lung.

        Doctors instructed her on how to breathe during the biopsy, Mr. Bonezzi said, but her English was limited.

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