CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Proposed changes to Nevada’s medical malpractice laws won majority support in an Assembly committee Friday. The bill is now headed to a vote in the full Assembly.

The legislation would eliminate the $350,000 cap for gross negligence damages awarded in medical malpractice cases.

AB495 was conceived following 2008’s hepatitis C outbreak in southern Nevada, when two medical clinics were accused of infecting patients through re-used syringes and vials.

If the bill becomes law, it would also increase the amount of time a patient would have to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Critics fear lifting the cap on damages will turn back the clock to 2004, when Nevada faced a crisis of doctors leaving the state due to the high cost of insurance. During testimony over the bill earlier this week, a group of Las Vegans protested outside the Grant Sawyer Building, chanting “Keep our doctors in Nevada.”