A blind man claimed health care workers carved the letters 'KKK' into his stomach during heart surgery in 2011, but a federal jury has found that a South Dakota hospital is not liable. Jurors ruled in favor of Rapid City Regional Hospital on Friday after five hours of deliberation. The hospital maintained that the marks on Vern Traversie's abdomen were the result of a skin reaction to medical tape. The Rapid City Journal reports that the 71-year-old sued the hospital for alleged violations of civil rights, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Scroll down for video . Injured: Vern Traversie (left) accused a  Rapid City Regional Hospital worker of  intentionally carving the letters "KKK" into his abdomen during heart surgery . Traversie is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. State and federal authorities earlier concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing. A lawyer for a Native American man who claimed the letters 'KKK' were carved into his stomach during surgery filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the hospital where the operation took place in 2012. YouTube videos featuring 69-year-old Vern Traversie, a Lakota man who lives on the Cheyenne River Reservation, went viral in Native American communities in 2012. In them, Traversie talks about being mistreated at the South Dakota hospital and shows his abdomen. Though he himself is blind, Traversie says he was told by others that the scars left after his heart surgery form the letters. Video from YouTube . Vern Traversie is blind but after a nurse saw these scars in his abdomen and on his back after his 2011 heart surgery, she told him he should get someone to take a photo of his scars . A May rally in support of Traversie drew hundreds of people, many of whom said his story exemplifies the racism Native Americans experience in Rapid City. But others say they couldn'  make out the letters, including police who investigated his allegations and hospital officials. Chase Iron Eyes, a lawyer for Traversie, filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in South Dakota against Rapid City Regional Hospital, its board of directors, physicians and TRS Surg Assist Inc. The lawsuit alleged a civil rights violation based on race and cites the scarring from Traversie's double-bypass surgery done in August 2011 as evidence. kk: The pattern of scars look as though they say KKK, which stands for the Klux Klux Klan . Defendants injured, carved, burned, and/or cared for Plaintiff's abdomen in such a manner that scars resembling three letters 'K' were permanently placed on Plaintiff's abdomen for no medically necessary purpose or reason, and in the process injured, carved, burned, and/or cared for other portions of Plaintiff's body to cause injury, specifically his abdomen and back,' the lawsuit stated. Tim Sughrue, chief executive of Rapid City Regional Hospital, said in a statement that the hospital will 'vigorously defend this claim'. 'We at Rapid City Regional Hospital are confident the care we provide meets or exceeds standards of care and is without bias or consideration of race, religion, color, age, sex, disability, national origin, or any other classification protected by law,' he said. 'I think the Native people have been fighting racial hatred for many years in South Dakota, but you know, it's not all the people that are hateful toward Native Americans,' said Traversie, who recently had another heart surgery in Bismarck, North Dakota. Post surgery: Vern Traversie shows his scars after getting heart surgery in 2011 and previously claimed the hospital carved KKK into his abdomen . 'We have a good segment of our society -- white society -- in South Dakota that are Christian people and they get along good with the Native Americans. In my instance, I believe I'm dealing with the Ku Klux Klan, and that's a small minority.' As well as the marks on his skin, he said the staff was also abusive towards him and when he told them how much pain he was in, no one did anything to help him. 'I had a confrontation with a male nurse while I was in intensive care,' he said. 'I was in so much pain, I begged him for pain medication. 'He told me to shut my f***ing mouth or he’d shut it for me. I didn’t provoke him. I didn’t disrespect him.' When he asked to be sent to a rehabilitation center because the pain was so bad, they said this was approved - but instead discharged him. On the day he was discharged, a nurse at the hospital told Mr Traversie that he should get someone to take a picture of the surgery scars on his stomach and his back. Hospital response: The hospital maintained that the marks on Vern Traversie's abdomen were the result of a skin reaction to medical tape . The nurse said she would not testify on his behalf but couldn't live with herself without at least alerting him to the scars. She said to him: 'My conscience won’t let me be. It’s bothered me for days. Something was done to you, and I believe it was wrong. 'I can’t sleep. I keep thinking about what they did to you.' He told the Indian Country Today Media Network after the operation: 'You can see the surgery sutures, and they’re clean. 'But those three letters, two good-sized Ks and one smaller one off to the side, had to be made with some sharp knife or heated instrument. It’s like they branded me.' Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Cody Hall, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, which Traversie belongs to, organized the May rally in an effort to bring attention to what they say is continued mistreatment of Native American people. Iron Eyes declined to comment about the lawsuit. While Traversie's story spurred the protest, many Native Americans who attended referred to broken treaties, unsolved murders and incarceration rates among Native Americans as their reasons for showing up. They included Dennis Banks, who helped found the American Indian Movement in the late 1960s to protest the U.S. government's treatment of Indians and demand the government honor its treaties with Indian tribes. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said on Tuesday that his office would release information in the 'near future' about its investigation. A friend of the 69-year-old who made a YouTube video about the case, said they also cut down through an existing surgery scar and carved two vertical lines above the older scar. The hospital have attributed the extra wounds to surgical tape or to infections related to his diabetes.
Vern Traversie, now 71, accused a South Dakota Hospital of carving KKK into his stomach post surgery . The hospital maintained that the marks on Vern Traversie's abdomen were the result of a skin reaction to medical tape . Traversie is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and noted a lonh history of discrimination in the region .