Michael Skolnik

Michael Skolnik was 25 when he died in June 2004.

DENVER - Patty Skolnik still cries every time she tells her son's story, even though it's been six years since he died. And she tells it at least once a day.

"I wish he was here and I didn't have this torch to carry," she said. "But I do. And it's what Michael would have wanted. He would have wanted me to fix this."

Michael Skolnik was 25 when he died in June 2004, three years after an unnecessary brain surgery by a neurologist who'd already been sued three times for medical malpractice.

In 2007, Patty succeeded in getting lawmakers to pass a Medical Transparency Act in Michael's name that made records of doctor's malpractice suits, as well as other background information, accessible to the public. Thursday, she'll ask lawmakers to expand its reach to include dentists, specialists and nurse's assistants.

"Anyone who is able to put their hands on a patient should be open to these kinds of background checks," Skolnik said.

In 2001, after Michael fainted, brain scans revealed a cyst that emergency room doctors examined and found to be non-life-threatening. But a neurosurgeon, consulted at the recommendation of a friend, sounded the alarm and told Patty that Michael needed to be rushed into surgery immediately.

"It was supposed to take three hours," Skolnik recalled. "It took six. And when it was over, the doctor came out to us, got down on one knee, took his hat off and he said, 'It's been a really long year'."

The doctor had just relocated to Colorado and when Skolnik searched online for evidence of past malpractice cases, she didn't find any. But, as Michael's health deteriorated rapidly after the surgery -- he was never the same, in fact -- Patty began to figure out that her doctor was at fault.

"Things just kept happening and I'd say, 'Why is this happening?' And he'd say, 'I don't know, it's just Michael'," Patty recalled. "He just mutilated his brain, basically is what happened. And over time things just started shutting down and shutting down until he went into complete organ failure."

After Michael's death, Patty went to the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners to ask how something so awful could happen.

"They said, 'It's not public. We have the information, we know everything. But it's not open to the public'," she said. "I asked how I can change that and they said I had to change the law."

That's what Skolnik set about doing, calling then-House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and getting late-bill status for what became the Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act.

Now, lawmakers will hear a bill to subject dentists, nurses and other medical professionals to the same transparency as doctors -- something lawmakers are likely to support following last year's incident involving Kristin Parker, the former nurse tech at Rose Medical Center who allegedly used her access to fentanyl to feed her drug addiction, and subsequently infected at least 17 people with Hepatitis C.

"If there's a nurse out there with a drug problem, that's been disciplined, you'll be able to see that," Skolnik said.