METHUEN — Albert "Ross" Jardine believes his wife Priscilla would be alive and teaching at Greater Lawrence Technical High School if a doctor hadn't made a mistake on her medication nearly five years ago.

A Salem Superior Court jury yesterday agreed, awarding the Methuen man and his family $2 million after finding a Woburn obstetrician liable for recommending the drug that killed the 32-year-old woman after an emergency cesarean section.

"This case is representative of the kind of damage that can be caused by a medication error in a hospital," said Boston attorney Lisa Arrowood of the law firm of Todd & Weld.

"The verdict represented long-awaited justice for the Jardine family," she said.

Albert Jardine was in the courtroom yesterday when the jury ended its four hours of deliberation. But he did not want to comment last night, according to his lawyers.

After hearing eight days of testimony and evidence over a three-week period, the jury found Dr. Debra Gail Knee was negligent for recommending the medication labetalol, which is used on patients with high blood pressure.

The lawsuit contends the drug caused Priscilla Jardine's blood pressure to drop to dangerous levels and also lowered her unborn baby's fetal heart rate to the point where it became undetectable.

She went into cardiac arrest and died Feb. 26, 2004, shortly after doctors delivered her daughter Amelia by emergency cesarean section, according to the court papers.

The jury award includes damages to the Jardine family in compensation for her net future lost income, the loss of a mother to 8-year-old Nathaniel and 4-year-old Amelia, the loss of a spouse to Albert Jardine and accumulated interest.

Cambridge attorney Peter Kelley hinted that his client, Knee, would likely appeal the jury's verdict.

"There are significant appellate issues and it is certainly likely the outcome will be contested," Kelley said in an interview last night.

"It is a curious and unexplainable verdict. .. There is an offset of the verdict by other parties that settled, that essentially eliminates the amount of the verdict," he said, referring to Dr. John A. Lozada and Dr. Anthony J. Straceski, who were defendants in the initial wrongful death lawsuit.

Kelley declined to elaborate on the out-of-court settlements by the two doctors and the dollar amount they agreed to pay.

He said his client never ordered administration of the drug that caused Mrs. Jardine's death.

"Another physician ordered and acknowledged he had exclusive decision-making on his order," Kelley said, referring to Dr, Lozada. The lawsuit said he ordered intravenous administration of labetalol and that staff at Caritas Holy Family Hospital assured the family that the drug "was safe."

Product literature supplied by the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the drug warns that it should be avoided in cases where a patient is experiencing congestive heart failure.

But a nurse, acting on doctor's orders, administered the drug intravenously even though Jardine showed symptoms of heart failure, according to the lawsuit.

Arrowood would not discuss the lawsuit settlements involving Lozada and Straceski.

But she asserted that the fact that another doctor ordered the administration of labetalol did not minimize Knee's role in the tragedy.

"The obstetrician came up with the drug (recommendation). She's the one. The jury found her liable," Arrowood said.

Jardine's death stunned the community, particularly Greater Lawrence Technical High School in Andover, where she had taught social studies for 10 years. She was so popular that the school's staff and students raised $18,000 to help the Jardine family.

Jardine was 38-weeks pregnant, but reported to work as at Greater Lawrence Technical High School because she was saving her sick days to take an extended maternity leave.

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