Beatrice Pereira admits she's always a mess on June 19 each year.

That's because that date is the anniversary of when Pereira lost her mother, Theresa, in 2006.

What makes Beatrice so sad is that her mother died in a case she believes is a case of medical negligence.

"My mom went in to a hospital for an eye infection, and she ended up dying," said Beatrice. "It's been more than four years now, and I still don't have any answers."

Theresa Pereira's story goes back to May 10, 2006, when the 71-year-old went in for cataract laser surgery. The surgery seemed to go well, but less than two weeks later, on May 21, her eye became sore and swollen and she had a headache.

Her son Gordon took her to Vancouver General Hospital, and the first doctor there told her the eye was infected. Theresa was told to go to an eye clinic down the street because they had more specialized equipment. At that clinic, Theresa was told by the resident doctor there that she needed immediate treatment and a freezing solution, Lidocaine, would be injected. The resident doctor also told Theresa that she needed some antibiotics, which would take an hour to arrive, so the doctor suggested that Theresa and Gordon go for lunch.

After Theresa returned, the resident doctor administered the Lidocaine and left to page a retinal specialist.

While alone, Theresa suffered a reaction to the medication. When the resident doctor and her son found her, she was unconscious and not breathing. Gordon was told that his mother had thrown up and had possibly inhaled some of the vomit when a breathing tube was put down her throat.

The initial diagnosis was that the Lidocaine had entered Theresa's cerebral fluid and frozen her brain. Theresa's brain was deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes.

Admitted to the intensive care unit, Theresa also suffered burns when an intravenous needle was incorrectly inserted into her arm and caused the medication to burn the outer layers of her skin.

By June 13, 2006, Theresa's condition had worsened, as a blood clot led to her needing medication to maintain a regular heartbeat. Six days later, Theresa was diagnosed with internal bleeding. When doctors were preparing her for surgery, they discovered that blood was barely flowing to her extremities. Within hours, the family had to make the decision on whether to take Theresa off the machines that were keeping her alive.

"Less than a month after my mother went in to get treatment on her eye, she was dead," said Beatrice. "I know that I definitely have to let go of the past, but it's been hard."

Instead of wallowing in pity and sorrow, Beatrice wanted to make a difference. She became involved in a local group, the Wrongful Death Law Reform Group, that was started five years ago.

The group offers support to families, like the Pereiras, who believe they lost their loved ones as a result of wrongful death.

Bentley Doyle, communications director for the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C., said wrongful death cases generally involve deaths caused through medical negligence or car accidents where the death was caused by someone else's recklessness and negligence, though not of a criminal nature.

"As it stands, non-wage-earners, generally children, seniors and the disabled, are worthless in the eyes of the law," said Doyle. "If their family didn't count on them for income, their loss of companionship, care, guidance, protection and so forth are ignored by the system, as is the pain and suffering experienced by the direct victim prior to death and the secondary victims, the loved ones left behind."

Doyle cites the recent case of a Vancouver lawyer receiving a multimillion-dollar settlement for loss of wages after being injured in a bar incident as an example of how the law places differing values on what a life is worth.

"There have been far too many victims of wrongful death in this province, and far too many families have been left helpless by the lack of proper law," said Beatrice. "The families are outraged by the state of the law in B.C. The greater public will be shocked and outraged as well, especially once citizens are made aware that - as it stands in British Columbia - children, seniors and the disabled are all worthless in the eyes of the law."

The group celebrated its fifth anniversary on Sept. 11 during a meeting at the Bonsor Recreation Complex that was attended by more than 50 people.

"It was a great turnout," said Doyle, who also had local lawyer Don Renaud speak at the gathering.

"New, fair and effective legislation is needed to provide legal remedies to suffering families," Renaud said. "As it exists, the law is only concerned with wage-earners and the economic loss of wrongful death. It totally fails to recognize pain, suffering and other forms of loss, such as loss of guidance, companionship, protection and care."

Doyle said the organization has more than 100 different supporters and their goal is to have a provincial Wrongful Death Act to be established.

In June 2007, the attorney general's ministry undertook a consultation on this topic, specifically looking at reform of the existing Family Compensation Act. The consultation concluded in September 2007, but so far there hasn't been any change to the existing law.