HAMMOND | Mark Weinberger, also known as "The Nose Doc," was slammed with a $300,000 medical malpractice verdict by a Lake Superior Court jury Friday.

A jury of six found the former Merrillville physician had mistreated, misdiagnosed and exposed to needless surgery plaintiff William Boyer, 58, of Gary, said Boyer's lawyer, Barry Rooth.

It was the first civil case against Weinberger to go to trial since he was extradited last year from Italy to the United States.

Rooth said his firm, Theodoros & Rooth, has almost 300 more plaintiff cases lined up against Weinberger. He said Weinberger's insurance company is sure to be following the cases and monetary awards closely.

"We have 287 more to go, you can do the math," Rooth said.

Valparaiso attorney Kenneth Allen also has filed numerous civil cases on behalf of clients against the former doctor.

Rooth said one of Weinberger's own expert witnesses testified the former physician was the worst doctor he had seen in his entire career.

Among counts the jury found against Weinberger, 46, were that he persuaded Boyer to have unnecessary surgery by telling him photos of bloody sinuses were his when in fact they were another patient's, Rooth said.

The doctor also didn't tell Boyer, a heavy equipment operator, that he had detected an irregular heart beat during pre-operative tests. Boyer only found out about the irregular heartbeat a year later when his heart was failing, Rooth said.

In December, the sinus specialist was found hiding in a tent about 6,000 feet above sea level at the foot of Mont Blanc in the Italian Alps. He later stabbed himself in the neck with a box cutterlike knife while in the bathroom of a police station in Italy, authorities said.

He was extradited on an arrest warrant connected with 22 counts of health care fraud perpetuated against insurance companies that were filed in U.S. District Court in Hammond in 2006.

Weinberger had operated the Merrillville Center for Advanced Surgery LLC and Nose and Sinus Centers LLC between November 2002 and 2004.

His fugitive saga started in 2004 when he didn't return from a family trip to Greece. He was featured on an episode of "America's Most Wanted."