Jurors in New Mexico have awarded a man more than $412 million in a medical malpractice case that involved a men’s health clinic that operates in several states.

The man’s attorneys celebrated Monday’s verdict, saying they are hopeful it will prevent other men from falling victim to a scheme that involved fraud and what they described as dangerous penile injections. They said the punitive and compensatory damages total the largest amount to ever be awarded by a jury in a medical malpractice case in the U.S.

“It’s a national record-setting case and it’s righteous because I don’t think there’s any place for licensed professionals to be defrauding patients for money. That is a very egregious breach of their fiduciary duty,” said Lori Bencoe, one of the lawyers who represented the plaintiff. “That’s breach of trust and anytime someone is wearing a white coat, they shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

The award follows a trial held in Albuquerque earlier this month that centered on allegations outlined in a lawsuit filed by the man’s attorneys in 2020. NuMale Medical Center and company officials were named as defendants.

“This corporate scheme manipulates and uses fear as a tactic to convince these men to do this,” Nick Rowley, a trial lawyer, told CBS affiliate KRQE.

According to the complaint, the man was 66 when he visited the clinic in 2017 in search of treatment for fatigue and weight loss. The clinic is accused of misdiagnosing him and unnecessarily treating him with “invasive erectile dysfunction shots” that caused irreversible damage.

Nick Rowley, another attorney who was part of the plaintiff’s team, said the out-of-state medical corporation set up a “fraudulent scheme to make millions off of conning old men.” He provided some details in a social media post, saying clinic workers told patients they would have irreversible damage if they didn’t agree to injections three times a week.

NuMale Medical Center told KRQE that they “disagree with the verdict and intend to pursue all available legal remedies, including appeal.”

NuMale Medical Center President Brad Palubicki said in a statement sent Wednesday to The Associated Press that the company’s focus is on continuing to deliver responsible patient care while maintaining strict safety and compliance standards at all of its facilities.

“While we respect the judicial process, due to ongoing legal proceedings, we cannot comment on specific details of the case at this time,” he said.

NuMale also has clinics in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, Nebraska, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

According to court records, jurors found that fraudulent and negligent conduct by the defendants resulted in damages to the plaintiff. They also found that unconscionable conduct by the defendants violated the Unfair Practices Act.

In a statement to KRQE, the man’s attorneys said the verdict sends a powerful message that “medical providers cannot prioritize profits over patients’ well-being without being held accountable.”

Many of us feel sleepy after eating turkey and all the fixings on our Thanksgiving dinner table, but why?  

While we often blame our post-dinner drowsiness on the tryptophan in turkey, experts say that isn’t the full picture.

What is tryptophan?

Tryptophan is one of 20 essential, naturally-occurring amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, according to the nonprofit Center For Food As Medicine. 

When tryptophan reaches the brain, it is converted into the neurotransmitter serotonin and hormone melatonin, both of which are sleep-inducing, according to the organization. 

Does turkey really make you sleepy?

Research suggests that consuming tryptophan can help people fall asleep faster and improve sleep quality, according to the Sleep Foundation — but it’s not likely to cause someone to need an immediate snooze. 

“Turkey is reported to make us sleepy because it has a higher concentration of the amino acid tryptophan compared to some other types of meat,” registered dietitian Melanie Betz, founder and CEO of The Kidney Dietitian in Chicago, told CBS News. “In reality, brain chemistry is much more complicated than that. Turkey has many different amino acids, all of which get converted to different hormones and complete with each other in all of those pathways.”

Turkey isn’t the only food with tryptophan, either. It is found in poultry, meat, cheese, fish, eggs and seeds — some of which have even more of the amino acid than the Thanksgiving staple it’s so often associated with. 

“There are many foods, such as pumpkin seeds, ground pork, cheddar, swiss, provolone and mozzarella cheese, and yellowfin tuna that have more tryptophan per 100 grams than turkey,” according to the Center For Food As Medicine. 

What else could contribute to Thanksgiving fatigue?

Betz says multiple aspects of a Thanksgiving feast could add to the “food coma”-type tiredness many experience. 

“The sleepy feeling you feel after a turkey dinner is much more likely related to eating a large, delicious meal — and perhaps an extra glass of wine — than a surge of melatonin related to turkey,” she said, explaining that when you eat, “blood rushes to your intestines to pick up all of those wonderful nutrients from food, moving away from your brain, which can make you feel tired.”

And alcohol has a sedative or “downer” effect, she added, which can contribute to sleepiness on the holidays.

A self-described white supremacist charged with killing a man in a tent in southwestern Montana has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide and claims self-defense, while investigators say there are inconsistencies in the defendant’s story.

Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, told District Court Judge Peter Ohman on Tuesday: “I definitely plead not guilty. Dustin Kjersem tried to kill me,” the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported. He also pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence.

Kjersem’s death in October was initially reported as a bear attack after his girlfriend found his body in a tent south of Bozeman near Big Sky on Oct. 12.

Investigators found shot glasses and beer cans in the tent that suggested someone else had been with Kjersem on Oct. 10. DNA tests on a beer can matched two people in the state’s criminal database, Daren Abbey and someone believed to be Abbey’s twin brother, court records say. The brother was ruled out because he was serving a prison sentence.

Abbey told investigators that Kjersem, 35, threatened him and his dog with a gun and he attacked Kjersem, first with a block of wood and then by stabbing him in the neck with a screwdriver. Abbey initially failed to tell investigators he used an axe in the attack as well, court records say. He also told officers he found the axe both inside and outside the tent. He told officers he rinsed the axe and screwdriver off in the creek, court records say.

Abbey said he did not report the fight because he had a felony record. He acknowledged taking a cooler of beer and guns from the crime scene and then returning the next day to look for a beanie he believed he might have left there. He told investigators he also took two cellphones and items out of Kjersem’s truck, charging documents say.

Investigators previously said an axe, shotgun, revolver and cooler were “believed to have been removed from the scene of the crime.”

An inmate information document released by Gallatin County says Abbey listed an organizational affiliation with white supremacists, while state Department of Corrections records say his tattoos include an iron cross with a swastika.

Abbey is jailed with his bail set at $1.5 million.

Kjersem’s sister Jillian Price said her brother was a skilled tradesman and a doting father.

A GoFundMe set up for Kjersem’s children has raised more than $37,000.