Hello, my name is Javier Rodriguez, 51 years old, her second oldest son. I grew up along with 3 other siblings and we were always taught by both our parents to respect and be courteous to others and as how we would like to be treated. My mama was always a very caring person, a very religious person, who always taught us to go to church on Sundays, midnight mass during Christmas, and Holy week. My mama was the type of person who would pray for just anyone. Aside from my mama raised as a Catholic, she had very strong morals, which she would instill in us, and always made sure we stayed strong no matter what. She was happily married to my dad and both made sure my siblings and I had a better future than them. She was always very healthy and active; however, her health started to deteriorate when her rheumatoid arthritis got too severe and out of control. The disease began attacking her body and most importantly her heart. We never linked it to her rheumatoid arthritis as being the main culprit, since doctors would just treat one disease separately when she would stay at the hospital. They would never give her rheumatoid arthritis medicine when they were treating her heart condition. I would always ask as to why and they would say it could interfere with what they would be giving her, yet when she was sent home, she would be directed to take all her medications, with no restrictions as how they would do it at the hospital. I took the initiative to take care of my mama and work lesser hours from work, as I wanted to take care of my mama, as she had done for me when I was just a boy.

I had spent years taking care of my mama from her rheumatoid arthritis to her anemia (which was caused by her arthritis medicines). At one point I thought if I had not been there when her anemia had set in, she would have passed away from not wanting to eat. When I helped her pulled herself away from being anemic and got her strong, her heart condition would set in a couple of years later. Before all the heart issues, she had gone through so many surgeries and replacements for her knees and hips, since her rheumatoid arthritis was that severe and a medicine called Synvisc One had worsened it. By 2022 my mama had three stints placed in her heart to open up three veins. The culprit was her rheumatoid arthritis, which attacks all organs and including anything that has cartilage. And since her heart valves have cartilage, it had made her left valve not close and thus causing a disease called mitral valve regurgitation (MR). Her cardiologist had given her medications only to remove the excess water that would build up in her heart and legs.

My mama's condition worsens, and I have to take a part time job in order to be there. My dad is there as well, but he has his own health problems with cancer and polyps. My brother is there as well to help anytime I needed some time for myself, but I did not want to pull away and felt like it should be my responsibility, since I had been there through most of her health conditions. Perhaps, I took that opportunity away from my siblings, but I wanted to be there for her. My siblings would just spoil my mama in any way they could and make her feel loved, even though we never expected for her to pass away so quickly. I was eventually fired by my employer who would not work around my schedule. Texas Workforce Commission would take the employer's side even though, I had sent company emails showing proof that my employer had given me an ultimatum, show up for work or be fired, during one of my days off while I was with my mama at one of her appointments.

On one of my mama's recent trips to the hospital, my mama's cardiologist had then recommended a medicine called Milrinone due to her heart getting weak after a disruption and stress in her body from another medicine called Augmentin. The medicine Milrinone was supposed to make her heartbeat stronger and thus my mama would never set foot in the hospital every 6 months like she had been doing due to her heart and edema. However, her cardiologist failed to tell us that once she was placed on it, she could not be taken off it, since it makes her heart receptors to be dependent on that medicine. If that medicine is taken off, her heart pressure would drop drastically that would cause her to have a heart attack and die. Also, one severe side effect of that medicine is that it is so toxic, that it affects the kidneys by making them not work, which he failed to inform us before placing her on that medicine. That medicine would also cause her heart to beat above 100 beats per minute, as if one is running all the time. Her heart being that weak and stressing it out even further, made her so weak she kept going to the hospital every other week. Her cardiologist increased her dosage at one point when she had gone in thinking it would help her get rid of the adema, but I strongly believe the cardiologist had made the biggest mistake in diagnosing her and recommending her that medicine and giving us empty promises.

My mama ended up at the hospital one last time this month only not to come out and never getting a chance to talk to me. She tried to tell me something, but her speech was barely audible since she was so weak that it hurts me so much that I will never know what she wanted to tell me. My mama would then slip into a coma.

The day my mama passed away, one of the interns around 2 a.m. on October 6, 2025, he decided to give my mama a medicine called Giapreza, which supposedly would help in increasing blood pressure at the expense of cutting off more blood flood to other parts of her body. However, that medicine is for adults who are not in such a weak state and do not have a very low ejection fraction as what my mama had. That made her blood pressure drop so severe that she ended up having adrenaline shots every 30 minutes until she passed away. One cardiologist who had stepped in had mentioned that she should have never received that medication.

I watched my mama slip away once during the first adrenaline shots; her eyes had sink and rolled back. When she did come back the first time, I was crying and pleading her to stay with us and that everything would be alright. She opened her eyes once and let out her tears and closed her eyes. I never got another chance to see her beautiful eyes or her smile.

The last adrenaline injection was given by the morning shift CCU doctor, who brought in a sonogram machine for us to watch to see if the medicine would work. Her right side of the heart had stopped and then her left side of the heart just gave two last beats and stopped. That was the worst feeling ever. I had asked for them to try and resuscitate my mama with those electric paddles, but the doctor said it would not help her. My mama passed away on October 6, 2025, at 8:24 a.m. She was 72 years young.

The doctors' promises of her living longer with those medications were a lie. We were not prepared emotionally nor are we prepared financially and this is why I am here. I am needing help with funeral/memorial expenses. I will be truly grateful for all the help I can get from anyone of you.

Thank you all for reading and may you all take notes of the medicines that caused my mama's death. Don't let your loved ones get on those medicines, seek other opinions and never, never let them be on any others like noreinephrine, vasopressin, epinephrine, and Giapreza as these restrict blood flow to all extremities. My mama's fingertips were already turning black and who knows if she was getting blood supply to her brain, since I had asked the doctors and they would say there was a possibility, but could not pull her off those medicines. Everything they did was malpractice.

The hospital (St. Luke's at the medical center in Houston, TX) have given us only a week to get all services and have my mama's body picked up.

Sincerely,

Javier E.A. Rodriguez

{I will always miss you mama, and living the rest of my years will be empty ones, wish the Holy Spirit would have given me the miracle of you having a second chance at life}