TAMPA, Fla. — A family is now fighting to support a 6-year-old boy after the sudden passing of his only parent.
Olivia Rose Gonzalez was just 29 years old when an adverse reaction to medication caused her to collapse and hit her head. Days later, she was pronounced brain dead, leaving her family in heartache.
"I miss you, baby girl. I love you, baby girl. I don't know how I'm going to take the next steps without you," Michael Gonzalez said while sending a message to his daughter.
He sat down with 10 Tampa Bay's Angelina Salcedo and shared his daughter's story. The bond between the two was unbreakable.
"She had a beautiful heart and a beautiful soul. She had the gift of making you laugh and then also at the same time driving you crazy," Michael Gonzalez said.
Despite her struggles with mental health, Olivia Gonzalez was his everything just like her son Jayden was to her.
"My grandson Jayden Miguel Gonzalez will carry on what I'm missing in the flesh now," Michael Gonzalez said.
He expressed that his daughter had just recently allowed God back into her life. She was taking steps to get better and started seeing a psych doctor.
"They started of course, prescribing all kinds of, you know, medications. She was actively pursuing her spiritual self as well. It was coming together. But, again, it wasn't meant to be the way we wanted it to be. She's going to be forever, forever missed," Michael Gonzalez said.
The medications doctors had put her on changed her life in a way her family wasn't expecting.
"She was unconscious on the floor. Apparently, the medications that she had taken had an adverse reaction. She was coloring her hair, doing her nails and next thing you know, she just passed out. Head trauma. I was the one that administered CPR and called 911. We got her back to life because she was already asphyxiated. She was in a coma and never recovered from it," Michael Gonzalez said.
After three days of tests, doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital said the young mom was brain dead. Shortly after, a decision made by her family that would save lives.
"They were able to salvage four vital organs that are now residing in someone else. She lives on. She lives on in four people and some lucky person has her heart, which is her most treasured possession. It's full of love, full of love just like in her son," Michael Gonzalez said.
Now, Jayden and the four people living through Olivia will be guided and loved.
"For right now, he's a wonderful little boy without parents and whatever his destiny is I'm sure it will be guided by his mom," Michael Gonzalez said.
Jayden's family is working on using whatever GoFundMe donations they receive to support him and create a foundation. That foundation in his mother's memory will help him go to college. Services to honor Olivia will be at 4 p.m. Sunday at Relevant Church in Tampa.