Losing a loved one is never easy, especially when a doctor could have prevented the death. A grieving Pasco County mother believes doctors' neglect killed her son, only to discover she can't do anything about it because of a strange Florida law.
“No one is going to bring back my son, and what they did to him that should not go on. He deserved better care,” says mother Jeanette Gonzalez. “These doctors need to be held accountable. There has to be a change."
Gonzalez vows that her 33-year-old son’s death won’t be in vain.
“He deserved better. He was a wonderful person. He loved everybody,” says Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says her son Javier Roldan lived life to the fullest. He was born with spina bifida. He represented the March of Dimes, rubbed elbows with baseball greats and rock stars, even made an appearance in the Super Bowl XXV half-time show in Tampa, until his mom insists his life was tragically cut short at the hands of his doctors.
“He seized, convulsed and died, and they didn't even know it,” says Gonzalez. She says her son went into a Pinellas County hospital for a broken leg last month. Six days later, he was dead. She claims doctors didn't listen to her concerns.
“I knew the signs, and no matter how much I complained, they just yes'ed me, left the room, and no one ever showed up,” says Gonzalez. She says she believes doctors’ negligence killed her son.
Attorney Nicolette Nicoletti says the state's Wrongful Death Act ties her hands to help loved ones like Jeanette, who can't file a medical malpractice suit if the patient who dies is single without children or dependents under 25.
“It discriminates against an entire class of people, which violates the United States Constitution,” says Nicoletti. She is working pro bono, and says she will file complaints with the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Board of Medicine. “Those complaints don't hold as much merit as having a malpractice lawsuit on your record to let the public know what's happened here, what this doctor has done in the past and the risk you take if you see this doctor,” says Nicoletti.
Gonzalez's mother believes changing the law is a matter of life and death. “I'm going to make it my work from now on, the rest of my life, that everyone is going to know who my son is,” says Gonzalez.
Rep. Darryl Rouson tells 10News WTSP that it will likely take lobbyists or a sympathetic Legislature to change this unfair law. Gonzalez says she won't stop fighting in Javier's honor and to help other families.
Gonzalez isn’t alone, 10News discovered that a Spring Hill mother has filed a petition on Change.org to allow parents of single adult children to get that justice for medical malpractice.
