The mother of a boy who died after falling two stories at an abandoned hospital building is speaking out after filing a lawsuit against the building's owners earlier this week.
Ada Morales filed the lawsuit Wednesday against Lycee Francias de Chicago, the owners of the old Ravenswood hospital, alleging they did not adequately secure the building and failed to keep it in a safe condition, resulting in the death of Jose Morales, 16.
"My heart is very very sad. I do not understand what happened," she said.
The site is surrounded in places by a crushed chain-link fence, with graffiti covering portions of the building, a site that neighbors described as "an accident waiting to happen."
Though the hospital is boarded up, Morales and her attorneys contend the hospital did not do enough to keep people out. The teens gained access to the building's roof through a fire escape, the lower stairs of which have since been removed.
"Had they boarded up the building, had they secured it, This never would've happened," her attorney Alan Bender said. "This tragedy never would've occurred/"
Lycee Francias de Chicago is a private pre-kindergarten through high school. It currently has plans to demolish the building and construct a 90,000-square-foot school on the property, but due to concerns regarding asbestos and other environmental issues, tearing the structure down could take six months.
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As the building continues to decay, Morales is still waiting for her son.
"I wait for him but he's not coming," she said.
