![\"Nicholas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FDKATIUUNFAPVEJ4SBMMKHSPTY.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNicholas Mata just wants to play football.<\/p>\n
The Roanoke tween already has the size to back up his dreams: At 12 years old, he\u2019s 6-foot-2. <\/p>\n
His parents \u2014 Reasa Selph and Antonio Mata \u2014 thought he was on track toward that goal. That is, until a relatively mild illness spiraled into a near-death experience and left their son with lifelong health complications.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, Nicholas\u2019 parents took him to Methodist Southlake Medical Center first for a relatively mild sickness and then again for a much more severe illness. The family alleges that the medical providers for that second visit ignored the boy\u2019s obvious signs of medical distress, sending him home when he should\u2019ve been admitted. As a result, the family says, Nicholas nearly died.<\/p>\n
Business Briefing<\/p>\n
For more than a year and a half now, Nicholas and his parents have been coping with the fallout.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nicholas Mata photographed with his mother Reasa Selph and father is Antonio Mata on Monday, July 14, 2025, in Roanoke, Texas.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The 12-year-old is still in regular medical appointments and treatments. He\u2019s spent much of this summer at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the family recently learned that Nicholas\u2019 heart isn\u2019t functioning correctly.<\/p>\n
And the family believes it all could\u2019ve been prevented. As they juggle ongoing medical care, they\u2019ve also set off on a quest for accountability.<\/p>\n
Selph filed a complaint with federal regulators, who then issued a violation notice to the hospital. The family also recently refiled a lawsuit against the Southlake hospital, naming the hospital itself, Dr. Teresa Proietti and the physicians group Emergency Medicine Consultants.<\/p>\n
Proietti did not respond to phone calls to her office. In a succinct legal filing, the doctor denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Methodist Health System said in an email that the system does not comment on pending litigation. A spokesperson for Emergency Medicine Consultants similarly declined to comment on active litigation.<\/p>\n
At the end of July, however, Methodist Health System submitted legal filings to the court, saying the lawsuit\u2019s assertions are vague and not sufficiently supported by the evidence. <\/p>\n
In the filing, the health system also wrote that it is not responsible for Proietti\u2019s actions. The events of December 2023 were \u201cwholly and completely unavoidable and without any negligence on the part of\u201d the hospital, according to the filing.<\/p>\n
![\"Reasa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/DQ2PEVDVYZFGZBXDCJ7SY5PMPE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Reasa Selph holds hands with her son Nicholas Mata during an interview on Monday, July 14, 2025, in Roanoke, Texas.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The flurry of activity in the wake of Nicholas\u2019 near-death experience is a testament to the amount of attention one family can garner, when they have the time and resources to dedicate. But they know not every family would be able to put the same energy and money into the cause \u2014 and, to Selph, that\u2019s enough reason in itself to keep pushing.<\/p>\n
The timeline<\/p>\n
It started with what seemed to be a case of the flu.<\/p>\n
In mid-December 2023, Nicholas was a fifth grader at Liberty Christian School in Argyle. The school sent him home sick, and Selph then took him to get medical care at Methodist Southlake. The hospital\u2019s providers gave Nicholas an IV and sent him home to rest.<\/p>\n
For a while, it seemed like he was getting better. By the 22nd, though, Nicholas had gone downhill. By the 23rd, Selph and Mata could barely get Nicholas to move around, so they took him back to Methodist Southlake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were there for a little under two hours,\u201d Selph said, \u201cand they just said, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s viral. Go home. He\u2019ll be fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
On Christmas morning, Nicholas was doing markedly worse, Selph said. He could barely get out of bed. He wouldn\u2019t eat. And Selph distinctly remembers that her son looked gray and yellow.<\/p>\n
![\"Family](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MC5GP77YU5FJ3NPQGEYSXWIM7A.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Family photos of Nicholas Mata on Monday, July 14, 2025, in Roanoke, Texas.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
This time, the family took Nicholas to Cook Children\u2019s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where the medical providers swarmed the sick fifth grader. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea until later how really, really sick he was,\u201d Selph said.<\/p>\n
On that first day at Cook Children\u2019s, Selph remembers Nicholas was throwing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe starts to throw up and I grab the blue bag and I give him the blue bag and we\u2019re holding it,\u201d Selph said. \u201cAnd he vomits a pint of blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Selph, it was one of the scariest moments of her son\u2019s illness.<\/p>\n
The Cook Children\u2019s providers determined Nicholas was in septic shock. Septic shock is an extreme response to an infection, and it can worsen rapidly as the body\u2019s organs shut down. The condition has a high mortality rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came in and they just said, \u2018We don\u2019t know how this is going to turn out. We\u2019d like to bring in a priest for you,\u2019\u201d Selph said.<\/p>\n
Nicholas had a weeklong stay in the ICU at Cook Children\u2019s, punctuated by several invasive procedures including intubation. After the ICU, he spent another several weeks in the hospital before he was discharged. In total, he was hospitalized for more than a month.<\/p>\n
Nicholas survived, although Selph said there were long stretches where she thought he wouldn\u2019t. Afterward, he had to relearn how to walk. And now, he has health complications that will likely be lifelong.<\/p>\n
Importantly for Nicholas, some of the complications may also infringe on his ability to play football.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/I6AZ4UAGTJCT5EGKJHB4MRXZVI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A Liberty Christian hat with an inspirational message to Nicholas Mata from Jason Witten is displayed at Mata\u2019s home on Monday, July 14, 2025, in Roanoke, Texas.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The family believes the worst of the illness and the complications could\u2019ve been avoided if Methodist Southlake providers had taken better care of Nicholas on his second visit to the ER.<\/p>\n
Pushing for accountability<\/p>\n
In the months since Nicholas was discharged from the hospital, his family \u2014 and especially Selph \u2014 has searched for ways to hold Methodist Southlake and its providers responsible for what they see as medical malpractice.<\/p>\n
Selph filed a complaint with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid, even if the patient in question has other forms of health care coverage.<\/p>\n
In mid-April 2024, according to a CMS document that Selph provided to The Dallas Morning News, the federal agency found that the Southlake hospital had failed to meet standards of care in Nicholas\u2019 case. The document does not specifically name Nicholas, but it describes the unnamed patient as an 11-year-old and describes the same medical situation. Selph also said the document does refer to her son.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the federal notice says Methodist Southlake failed to provide a proper medical screening and \u201cdischarged Patient #1 with a diagnosis of upper respiratory infection despite Patient #1 having abnormal labs, elevated heart rate and decreased blood pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family also filed a civil lawsuit against the hospital in September, but dropped it in favor of pushing for legislative action during Texas\u2019 2025 session. Now that the session is over, the family has refiled that Tarrant County lawsuit against Methodist Southlake and the treating doctor, Proietti.<\/p>\n
They argue the hospital and the medical team were negligent in their treatment of Nicholas.<\/p>\n
While a spokesperson for Methodist declined to comment, attorneys for the health system wrote in legal filings that the family\u2019s claims are not supported by the evidence and that the hospital is not responsible for Proietti\u2019s actions. Proietti wrote in a short legal filing at the beginning of August that she denies the allegations.<\/p>\n
Selph is also pushing for repercussions from the Texas Medical Board and the Texas Board of Nursing, and she\u2019s looking into possible criminal charges, too.<\/p>\n
All of these paths take time. Selph said it\u2019s been an enormous amount of work to file and follow up with the various enforcement mechanisms.<\/p>\n
But Shane Langston, the family\u2019s attorney, said the case is strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this a long time,\u201d Langston said, \u201cand we don\u2019t file a case like this, against medical providers, unless it\u2019s legitimate and strongly supported by our medical specialists who reviewed the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s got to be change\u2019<\/p>\n
There are moments of the past year and a half that are seared into their memories.<\/p>\n
Selph remembers when they got home from the hospital, after Nicholas was discharged, and all of their Christmas decorations were up. It was, by then, well over a month since the holiday.<\/p>\n
The whole family struggled with the strong association they had between Christmas \u2014 a favorite holiday \u2014 and Nicholas\u2019 near death. Nicholas\u2019 dad, Antonio Mata, said that when he thinks back on how sick his son was that day, he\u2019s washed with guilt.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could I miss what he was trying to tell us?\u201d Mata said.<\/p>\n
For their next Christmas, in 2024, Selph organized a wild departure from their usual rituals. They spent the day indoor skydiving.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis past Christmas, we had a really tough time, because nobody wanted to be here,\u201d Selph said. <\/p>\n
The family doesn\u2019t want anyone else to experience what they have experienced: the panic, the weeks at the hospital, the guilt, the rearranging of their entire lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want this to happen to someone else,\u201d Selph said. \u201cAnd if we can prevent just one person from going through this, that would be a win for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It could be months or years before their lawsuit is resolved, and the legal process can be both costly and time intensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s worth it,\u201d Mata said. \u201cThere\u2019s got to be change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicholas Mata just wants to play football. The Roanoke tween already has the size to back up his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,1141,881,358,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-121113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-public-health","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114976705019122303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}