Opinion ID: 784453
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sharon Reeser (Administratrix of the Estate of Geneva Bare)

Text: 41 Sharon Reeser brought her personal injury and wrongful death claims on June 6, 2001 as the administratrix of the estate of her mother, Geneva Bare, who died in November 2000 of CBD. Bare lived within two blocks of the Reading plant throughout most of her life. She began to experience difficulty with her lungs in the early 1990s, at which point she came under the care of a pulmonologist, Dr. Krol. One of Bare's daughters, Judith Forry, testified that she accompanied her mother to a doctor's appointment in the mid or late 1990s (she was unsure of the date and if the appointment was with Dr. Krol or with a Dr. Muvdi) and that her mother asked if berylliosis was a possibility, but that the doctor really kind of put it off. He really didn't think it was important to her case. He said the test wasn't really accurate. SA at 199. Forry testified that her mother's question had been prompted by an article on berylliosis in the Reading Eagle, but that this was the first and only time Bare raised the issue of berylliosis until shortly before she died, when Bare was reminded of the possible link between beryllium exposure and lung disease by hearing that a neighbor had been diagnosed with CBD. SA at 200. 42 In their personal notes on her case, Bare's physicians raised the possibility that she had berylliosis. In 1996, for example, Dr. Krol wrote a letter to another of Bare's physicians stating that she: 43 certainly has progressive interstitial lung disease and had significant interstitial lung disease as far back as 1977.... I don't know the cause of her interstitial disease. It certainly could be a form of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, berylliosis, sarcoidosis, even bronchiectasis.... 44 SA at 5. In an earlier letter regarding Bare, Dr. Krol had noted her exposures at the beryllium plant, SA at 3, and in his January 1997 record of Bare's condition, he wrote that she had [s]table pulmonary fibrosis since 1977 and that [i]t has been slowly progressive[,] question of berylliosis. SA at 8. In July 1997, Dr. Krol again noted that Bare suffered from Interstitial lung disease, possible berylliosis. SA at 8. 45 In response to an inquiry about the question of berylliosis language in Dr. Krol's January notes, Judith Forry testified that Dr. Krol never recommended it could be [berylliosis]. That would be my mother's guess.... That would probably be my mother questioning him. SA at 208. A Dr. Stelmach also took notes on Bare's condition, in February 1999, and stated that she had a longstanding history of interstitial lung disease and pulmonary fibrosis of undetermined etiology, although there is a very weak suggestion it is related to beryllium exposure, in that she lived in the area of the beryllium factory. App. at 108. 46 While it is clear that Bare's physicians thought berylliosis might be a possibility, Reeser testified that they never shared this with Bare herself. When asked if Dr. Krol or any other doctor had informed Bare of the possibility that her condition might be linked to her exposure to beryllium, she responded my goodness, no. App. 110-111. Reeser asserts that she herself first became aware of the potential connection between her mother's illness and beryllium exposure in 2000, when one of her neighbors was diagnosed with CBD. App. 114-115. The presence of CBD was first confirmed during Bare's autopsy.