Most of the time, people do not understand what parents go through, particularly when the loss of the child occurs outside the home. There are so many critical comments about how parents should react to the loss of a child. There are so many outside voices that frown on parents who file a civil lawsuit when their children die at the hands of another. Unless you experience this kind of loss, you cannot understand what these parents go through. Therefore, it is best to step back and allow parents facing the death of a child to deal with the situation in whatever way they feel is appropriate, even if it means filing a lawsuit against the responsible party.

Imagine going about your daily routine, doing laundry and running errands, to get the call. How about going to school to pick up her son or going home and finding out that her son is not there because she died? Of course, the first reaction is that of doubt. When they said someone died, they certainly didn’t mean his son. Thus, when the father shakes his head and refuses to believe the person delivering the sad news, he repeats what the shocked father refuses to acknowledge. The boy is gone. It was an accidental death and it shouldn’t have happened, but it did.

The news finally hits the father and the loud scream, the piercing scream is projected out of the lungs. The boy was gone, never to return. Never hear his sweet voice, never see or hug the child you cared for and loved. As the death story unfolds, you sit listening in disbelief, wondering how this could have happened. Loss of life can’t go that bad. When the mental calculation of what happened collides with the reasoning skills, the understanding of wrongful death continues to reproduce a mental image that turns into anger. Someone will pay.

Someone has to pay. Someone must be held accountable for the death of his innocent son. However, filing a lawsuit is not as easy as many believe. Each state has its own regulation and the best way forward can be just as complicated as the best way not to proceed. The grieving process will cloud appropriate actions or questions as parents work through a traumatic event. How can a parent deal with the wrongful death of a child?