Man’s body rejects new heart after Florida jail refused him medication, attorney says
A man with a failing heart moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to receive a heart pump. He lived with that device for more than two years while waiting on a transplant list for a compatible heart.
When a heart finally became available, Dexter Barry underwent transplant surgery in October 2020, according to his family’s attorney Andrew Bonderud, who is based in the city. Following the procedure, Barry stayed in the city to be near his heart transplant team at the Mayo Clinic.
Two years later, Barry, 54, was accused of getting into a verbal dispute with his neighbor and was arrested on a simple assault charge, a misdemeanor, on Nov. 18, 2022, a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest report shows.
While in the back of the arresting deputy’s patrol car and on the way to Duval County Jail, he informed the deputy of his heart transplant and how he had to take medication for it three times a day, according to body camera footage provided to McClatchy News. The medication, mycophenolate, is an immunosuppressant and helps prevent a person’s body from rejecting an organ following a transplant.
Although Barry repeatedly pleaded for his medication, he never received it while detained in jail, according to Bonderud. After missing those doses, he died two days after his release on Nov. 23, as first reported by The Tributary in Jacksonville.
He plans on filing a federal lawsuit over Barry’s death, Bonderud told McClatchy News.
A private autopsy paid for by his family noted he had a “moderate to severe rejection reaction in the transplanted heart,” the report conducted by board certified pathologist Dr. Jose V. SuarezHoyos, of Private Autopsy Associates, LLC, shows.
“The pathologist said there’s no question. It was heart rejection. His body attacked the transplanted heart,” Bonderud said.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Officer Allyn Kelly declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on June 1, saying the matter was “under litigation.”
Bonderud said Jacksonville and Duval County Jail’s contracted medical provider Armor Health need to be held accountable for Barry’s death.
In a statement provided to McClatchy News on June 2 on behalf of Armor Jacksonville, Armor Health Chief Operating Officer Manuel Fernandez said “our initial investigation of the clinical care received by the detainee while in custody at the jail has found that our clinicians followed protocol and delivered quality medical care.”
Armor Health had previously been convicted in connection with an inmate’s death in Milwaukee in 2016, according to The Tributary. Now, the Florida Department of Management Services is investigating the company, the outlet reported.
In a statement to McClatchy News on June 1, the department said “Florida law requires vendors to notify DMS when they have been convicted of a public entity crime.”
“Armor Correctional Healthcare failed to do so, and the department has begun an investigation.”
Fernandez said the Milwaukee incident is “being disputed in the court system.”
‘I am on medication. I just had a heart transplant,’ Barry tells a judge
On Nov. 18, Barry went over to his neighbor to tell him to stop using his WiFi, which started an argument, the arrest report shows.
His neighbor accused Barry of verbally threatening to knock him out of his chair and he was ultimately arrested, according to the report.
Bonderud believes Barry shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.
“I question whether there was even probable cause,” he said.
Barry is heard in body camera footage telling the arresting deputy that his heart transplant surgery cost $4 million and his doctors would be “really upset” he’s being taken to jail.
The deputy calls his supervisor, informing him of Barry’s medical situation and need for medication, the video shows.
Barry, a husband and father to three adult children, explains how his daughters studied criminal justice and “if something happened to me, and my heart, there’s going to be a problem.”
The deputy is heard responding, telling Barry to make sure he tells the jail staff of his situation.
Barry did, according to Bonderud, and also told a judge during his initial court appearance.
On Nov. 19, Barry told the judge, according to a court transcript, that:
“I am on medication. I just had a heart transplant and I haven’t took my medicine all day since I have been locked up, and I take rejection medicines for my heart so my heart won’t reject it, and I am almost two years out.”
Directly afterward, the judge set his bond at $503, telling him that “hopefully you are able to make bond here and get your medication,” the transcript shows.
Barry’s death
Barry was released from jail on Nov. 20 after having missed multiple doses of his medication, according to Bonderud.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a person must take their prescribed mycophenolate daily to “prevent heart transplant rejection.”
Although he resumed taking his medication as soon as he could following his release, it was too late, according to Bonderud. His body had begun rejecting his transplanted heart.
After Barry died, his family wasn’t allowed to identify his body for five days, a GoFundMe created by his family for an autopsy says.
According to the family, the hospital said the morgue would be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and an autopsy wasn’t performed.
Instead, the Jacksonville Medical Examiner’s Office created a report, according to Bonderud. After this, the family contacted Bonderud about Barry’s death
The report “did not conclusively establish the family’s suspicions” about not receiving medication in jail, “but it corroborated them,” Bonderud said.
The attorney then advised them to have an autopsy performed on Barry.
When he reviewed the body-worn footage and court transcript, Bonderud said it became clear that Barry was “a man pleading for his life, pleading for medication that he is entitled to receive.”
“Dexter Barry didn’t deserve this,” Bonderud said.
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