First, we must decide whether plaintiff was entitled to file a claim for medical malpractice arising out of the alleged untimely diagnosis of decedent's cancer. We find that plaintiff was clearly entitled to bring the medical malpractice cause of action against defendants. Actions on claims for injuries which result in death shall not be prosecuted after the death of the injured person except pursuant to the next section. If an action is pending at the time of death the claims may be amended to bring it under the next section. A failure to so amend will amount to a waiver of the claim for additional damages resulting from death.
Defendants take the position that only pending claims survive death pursuant to the statute.
That section requires that the claim be filed prior to the death of the individual. We strongly disagree with this interpretation of the aforementioned statute. The goal of statutory construction is to interpret and apply the statute in accordance with the Legislature's intent. Nothing will be read into a statute that is not within the manifest intention of the Legislature as gathered from the act itself. The first criterion in determining intent is the specific language of the statute.