Beard v. Barron

On November 4, 1999, Vernestine Hudgins died of renal failure associated with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a painful condition where large blisters form on the skin caused by a hypersensitive reaction to medication. Her daughter, the plaintiff Devonna Beard, filed suit against Hudgins’s cardiologist, Dr. John T. Barron, and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center (Rush) 1 through its agents, Dr. Hesham Hassaballa and Dr. Barron, alleging medical negligence. The plaintiffs theory was that Drs. Barron and Hassaballa failed to timely detect a bleed in Hudgins’s brain, a subdural hematoma, that…