AUGUSTA – A Kennebec County jury has returned a medical malpractice verdict totaling nearly $643,000 in favor of a former Rumford police officer in a botched surgery that left him with a permanently swollen and painful leg.

Eric Richard, 41, of Mexico sued Dr. Eric Omsberg, a Waterville neurosurgeon, for negligence for severing a main vein during a 1999 operation and for failing to prescribe a needed blood thinner after the surgery.

The jury split 8-1 this month in Richard’s favor, awarding him $78,000 for past medical expenses, $170,000 for future medical expenses, $46,000 for lost earnings and $350,000 for “pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.”