The widow of the late actor/comedian Bernie Mac has filed a wrongful death suit against the doctor who was caring for Mac shortly before he died in 2008.
According to papers filed, Rhonda McCullough, Mac’s wife of more than 30 years, alleges his longtime dermatologist, Dr. Rene Earles, failed to diagnose Bernie with pneumonia, and didn’t send him from the clinic to a hospital in a timely fashion.
Earles, who treated Mac for lesions developed due to the sarcoidosis, stated in an interview that Mac had an allergic reaction from another doctor during a routine checkup, but he didn’t send him to a hospital until consulting with the doctor.
“He didn’t die the next day, he didn’t die in two days,” Earles tells The Chicago
Sun-Times. “He died in two weeks and he got over his original strain of pneumonia. He got another strain of pneumonia while he was in the hospital.”
“It was entirely devastating,” Earles said. “Look, Bernie was my patient. Bernie was my friend. We became extremely close — we were like brothers.”
McCullough wants at least $50,000 in damages in the wrongful death suit.
