Editor’s Note: This article includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - An Elk Grove couple say their son, a filmmaker and actor who served in the military, was let down by the mental health care available for veterans, leading to his death by suicide in 2018. They are seeking a remedy in court with a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

Carlos Lopez Sr. and Juanita Lopez told the Citizen that they believe their son, Carlos Lopez Jr., died as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They memorialized him with a celebration of life at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento, showing a student film he wrote, produced and starred in about the effects of PTSD on veterans.

The Laguna Creek High School graduate enlisted in the Army in 2002, months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, leading to service in Baghdad, Najaf and Fallujah. This was followed by time in Kuwait as a civilian contractor and then an additional tour of duty in Afghanistan. In all, his family said he served more than 37 months in combat zones.

After being honorably discharged in 2010, Carlos Lopez Jr. attended Cosumnes River College to study acting and theater. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film and television career, finding work in multiple movies and TV shows.

In addition, Lopez was diagnosed with PTSD and other conditions.

Years later, in 2018, following a series of visits with U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) mental health care providers, he took his own life. His parents advocated for recognition of the emotional anguish they experienced as a result, writing letters to Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and attempting to press the issue with the VA internally. In 2021, they found a law firm willing to represent them in court, and they filed suit.

The first trial date in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California is scheduled for Jan. 30.

Seeking Treatment

In February 2018, Lopez began to seek mental health treatment. According to court documents filed on behalf of the Lopezes, he made an unscheduled visit to a VA medical center in Los Angeles complaining of “low motivation, thoughts of death, and depression.” The psychologist who saw him referred him to a second psychologist the next month.

He reportedly told the second psychologist that he was experiencing symptoms like guardedness and intrusive memories from combat. At a follow-up appointment, a neurologist prescribed gabapentin for Lopez, to ease back pain. After one more appointment in May, the next meeting with the second psychologist was scheduled for three months later.

Lopez showed up at the medical center before then, on June 19. According to plaintiff filings, he said he had“frequent nightmares that were ‘so real that he can’t distinguished [sic] between real and not real,’ and worries that he is a ‘bad person’ and ‘capable of doing awful things.’”

The psychologist who had treated him back in February determined that he was at low risk of harming himself or others.

Five days later, on June 24, 2018, Lopez died by suicide. He was 35 years old. The coroner’s report found no drugs or alcohol in his system; the coroner reportedly did not test for gabapentin.

The Lopezes are arguing that the VA engaged in medical malpractice while treating their son, resulting in his death, and mental anguish for his parents.

They said the VA appointments, several of which lasted less than 30 minutes, were too short to get a proper sense of Lopez’s mental state. They felt he should have been placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold.

Additionally, they pointed to the fact that gabapentin’s listed side effects include thoughts of suicide.

Carlos Lopez Sr. told the Herald that the medication “enhanced” his son’s distress. The Lopezes said their son called them and other family members in the days before he died, saying he was having nightmares and couldn’t sleep. However, Juanita Lopez said, they didn’t “connect the dots.”

The Government’s Response

In its defense, the government has asserted that the Lopezes cannot prove any breach in the standard of care by the doctors who treated Carlos Lopez Jr. and that “there was there was no indication or evidence that Mr. Lopez was actively suicidal or homicidal” in the time leading up to his death. It argued that “an unknowable number of events” could have affected Lopez’s mental state in the five days between his final appointment and his suicide.

The defense made these statements in a filing on Dec. 11, 2023.

Regarding the possibility of an involuntary psychiatric hold, the government said it would show, through expert testimony, that Lopez did not meet the criteria for such an action when he met with the psychologist.

It asserted that gabapentin is a common choice for treating neuropathic pain and does not create significant suicide risk. It also said that there is no advice against prescribing gabapentin to a patient who has been diagnosed with PTSD. Further, the government said there was no evidence Lopez had been taking the medicine as prescribed.

“Plaintiffs also only offer speculation that Gabapentin played a role in Mr. Lopez’s death,” the defense said. “Moreover, there is no evidence of Gabapentin in Mr. Lopez’s body at the time of his death.”

A Bigger Issue

Juanita Lopez said it angered her to learn that veterans taking their own lives is a broader problem. An article on veteran suicide that included her son’s death and those of other servicemembers particularly struck her.

The suicide rate among veterans was 33.9 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to data from the VA. The rate for nonveterans was roughly half that of veterans, at 16.7 per 100,000.

The Lopezes said it is important to them to say that their son died from PTSD. They said the VA should have doctors perform a more careful psychiatric assessment when a patient first comes in, and take more decisive action to protect veterans who indicate a risk of suicide.

In his self-produced film, “PTSD: An American Tragedy,” Carlos Lopez Jr. plays a soldier, Victor Martinez, who, after serving a tour of duty in Afghanistan, returns home with severe trauma. Innocuous sounds, like a kitchen timer, trigger flashbacks to the battlefield, and he copes with nightmares and stress by drinking and doing drugs. He becomes violent with his wife and a close friend. The movie ends as Victor takes his own life.

Lopez’s interest in film was evident during his Iraq service, when he would send his parents videos showing his experiences. His celebration of life featured a screening of “PTSD: An American Tragedy.”

His parents told the Citizen that they planned to testify at the Jan. 30 hearing.

“When a veteran goes to war and all that, they don’t go alone,” Juanita Lopez said. “There’s a whole family behind them, spiritually; maybe not physically, but that’s what happens. And when people die like this, you think, ‘There’s no cause for it happen this way. He survived his tours of duty. Why can’t he survive his civilian life?’”