I’m asking you to help me change a law—before another person dies like my mother did.

My name is Veronica Ovalles, and I’m the legal proxy and daughter of Blanca Ramirez, a disabled, quadriplegic Medicaid patient who died on April 11, 2025—not from her condition, but from preventable medical negligence at Chilton Medical Center under the Atlantic Health System in New Jersey.

She was admitted with oxygen at just 84%, placed on a nebulizer, and supposedly monitored. But when her heart stopped just three days later, I found out something that broke me: they weren’t even tracking her oxygen. There was no pulse oximeter attached to her. A nurse confirmed this on a recorded call after her cardiac arrest.

How does a hospital let a woman on oxygen go unmonitored?

It got worse. I had legal power of attorney. I formally rejected a brain death diagnosis under New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 26:6A-5) and asked that they continue life-sustaining treatment. But the hospital ignored my authority, downgraded her care to hospice, and watched her kidneys fail until she died.

Then they falsified her time and cause of death. I have the medical records, the picture of her monitor, and the statement of the nurse who was with me when her heart stopped. Despite this, they refused to correct it. A nurse even looked me up on LinkedIn after I submitted a formal complaint—as if to intimidate me.

New Jersey law protects hospitals. It doesn’t protect us.

There is a cap on punitive damages even in the most horrific cases. There is no law requiring pulse oximeters for patients in respiratory distress. There is no independent body to investigate hospital deaths when families raise concerns.

That’s why I need your help. I’m asking the New Jersey Legislature to:

1. Remove or raise the punitive damages cap in cases of gross medical negligence or wrongful death.

2. Mandate pulse oximeter monitoring for all hospitalized patients receiving oxygen or nebulizer treatment.

3. Enforce proxy rights under N.J.S.A. 26:6A-5, so families can’t be ignored or overruled.

4. Create an independent board to review disputed hospital deaths.

My mother’s name was Blanca Ramirez. Her life mattered.
She was silenced. I won’t be.

If this could happen to Blanca, it could happen to anyone. It could happen to someone you love.

My mother walked into that hospital full of life, and they gave her back to me in a body bag.

Sign this petition if you believe no one else should die this way. Help me make sure New Jersey hospitals never get away with this again.