Friday marked the end of a week-long trial and now Ohio Court of Claims Judge J. William Bettis must decide if Ohio State should be held responsible for the 1997 death of graduate student Shawn Wight.The $21 million lawsuit, filed by Shawn’s father, Brad Wight, claims that the university was negligent with the safety measures and evacuation procedures used on a Tibetan expedition in September 1997. Shawn Wight, 26, died two months later from respiratory failure because of a rare lung infection he obtained while in Asia.The last day of the trial saw testimony from the university’s expert witness, internationally renown mountain climber Peter Athans.Athans, who resides in Boulder, Colo., defended the precautionary measures taken by expedition leader Lonnie Thompson, a professor of geological sciences, when Shawn Wight fell ill near the summit of a glacier in Tibet.Shawn Wight became disoriented on the 23,000-foot summit, lost his appetite and noticed swelling in his leg.”It looked like a football,” Brad Wight said during testimony earlier in the week, “two to three times the normal size.”Thompson, a glaciologist and a veteran in leading polar research expeditions, reacted to Shawn Wight’s situation by taking the student to another camp at a lower altitude. When Wight’s condition failed to improve, Thompson decided that Wight should be taken to a hospital.After about a five-day stay in a hospital in Lhasa, Tibet, Wight was taken to a Hong Kong hospital before he was eventually flown to Cleveland’s University Hospitals.Athans was able to get a glimpse into Wight’s experience through the student’s field journal, which provided much of the evidence throughout the non-jury trial. He agreed with Thompson’s actions, explaining that it is important to get the patient to a lower altitude but at the same time reserve a certain respect for the individual’s experience by giving them an opportunity to recover.”There are things you learn in the field that you can never learn in a textbook,” Thompson stressed during testimony Wednesday. “Everything is planned in advance.”According to court officials, the decision will take at least two months. Main issues for Bettis to consider will be the adequacy of the expedition team’s safety equipment and the evacuation methods exercised by Thompson.