WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) – The attorney for a victim of a prolific pedophile doctor has asked a jury for up to $8 million in damages against a Hartford hospital where the doctor worked for three decades.

Final arguments were held Thursday in the first of 93 civil cases alleging Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center that it failed to prevent the abuse by Dr. George Reardon.

Investigators believe Reardon abused hundreds of children under the guise of a fake growth study. He died in 1998 without ever facing criminal charges.

The hospital has argued Reardon successfully hid the abuse from administrators.

On Thursday attorney Michael Stratton argued his client deserves between $5 and $8 million because he said if there was no growth study at the hospital, there would have been no abuse.

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