WELLINGTON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2026) — A wrongful death lawsuit filed March 16 in Palm Beach County accuses Wellington Regional Medical Center and emergency room physician James Rodriguez, D.O., of failing to diagnose a life-threatening condition in a pregnant patient who later died.
The case, Pearline Daley, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Tanasha Panton on behalf of the Estate of Tanasha Panton and behalf of IJG, surviving minor son of Tanasha Panton v. Wellington Regional Medical Center, LLC and James Rodriguez, D.O., was filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida, under Case No. 502026CA003049XXXAMB. The complaint was filed by Fogl Law Group. No defense law firm is identified in the filing.
According to the complaint, Pearline Daley was appointed personal representative of the Estate of Tanasha Panton, and the suit is brought on behalf of the estate and Panton’s surviving minor son, identified in the filing as IJG. The complaint alleges damages in excess of $50,000, exclusive of attorney’s fees, interest and costs, and states the claim is for wrongful death and medical malpractice arising from events in Palm Beach County.
The complaint says Tanasha Panton was a Palm Beach County resident and a patient at Wellington Regional Medical Center’s emergency room. It alleges the hospital operated its emergency department through an exclusive contract for emergency physicians and that Rodriguez was licensed in Florida, practiced in Palm Beach County, and held staff privileges at the hospital.
According to the complaint, Panton was about 24 weeks pregnant when she went to Wellington Regional on or about July 24, 2024, suffering from nausea and pain in her leg. The filing says she told staff at triage that the lower-extremity pain was getting worse and worse, and that the staff documented all of her complaints.
The lawsuit alleges Rodriguez diagnosed her condition as related to pregnancy after ordering an abdominal ultrasound. It claims he ignored her lower-extremity pain, did not consider a cause for the worsening pain, and did not order an ultrasound of the lower extremity. The complaint further alleges Rodriguez believed Panton was in stable condition and ordered her discharged.
The next day, according to the complaint, Panton collapsed at home and was taken by 911 to the emergency room, where it was believed she was suffering from a pulmonary embolus. The filing says tissue plasminogen activator, described in the complaint as a clot-busting drug, was given but had no effect, and that the 39-year-old died July 25, 2024, from a pulmonary embolus.
The suit claims Rodriguez breached the prevailing professional standard of care by failing to examine Panton’s lower extremities and failing to order an ultrasound to rule out a thrombus, which the complaint describes as life-threatening. It alleges that failure caused her death.
The complaint also seeks to hold the hospital liable. It alleges Rodriguez was acting as the hospital’s agent, either through actual agency or apparent agency, when he treated Panton in the emergency department. The filing claims the hospital created the appearance that emergency room physicians were part of its medical staff, provided Rodriguez to treat Panton, and did not identify him as anything other than an agent or employee of the hospital.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the estate and surviving son, including what the complaint describes as loss of support and services, mental pain and suffering, funeral expenses, and estate-related expenses. All allegations in the complaint are claims made by the plaintiff and have not been proven in court.
The original complaint, Pearline Daley, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Tanasha Panton on behalf of the Estate of Tanasha Panton and behalf of IJG, surviving minor son of Tanasha Panton v. Wellington Regional Medical Center, LLC and James Rodriguez, D.O., Case No. 502026CA003049XXXAMB, as filed March 16, 2026, with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, can be viewed at the PBC Clerk of Court.
Civil cases are filed daily in Palm Beach County courts. Boca Post documents many of those filings in its Boca Raton lawsuits coverage. Learn more about medical malpractice claims and how they’re typically litigated.
