A former professional fighter from New Jersey says that vaccines are to blame for the death of his son.

Nick Catone is preparing to open a new gym in Ocean County next week. But he says while he is preparing for that, he is also preparing to take on the government over the unexpected death of his son 15 months ago.

Catone says that his son Nicholas was only 20 months old. He says the boy went to bed one night and did not wake up the next morning. This was May 12, 2017. 

An autopsy report found that nothing was wrong. But Catone and his wife Marjorie did not find that acceptable.

"Instantly I had this gut motherly instinct that the only thing that came across his path was that he was recently vaccinated,” Marjorie Catone says.

Marjorie has been a nurse for 12 years. She says that she pulled her son’s medical records to look for patterns and noticed that he kept getting sick after being vaccinated.

The Catones are taking their case to vaccine court. It is a low-profile program that compensates families who can prove that their child was injured or died because of vaccines.

Brian Hooker lost his case in vaccine court 20 years ago. His son had autism.

“After the vaccination, after his fever spiked, he then very quickly lost all language. He lost all eye contact. He lost any type of joint attention,” Hooker says.

But pediatrician Mark Sawyer tells News 12 New Jersey that while side effects from vaccines are possible, their benefits are much greater than their risks.

The Catones say that they want to see changes in legislation.

"You get angry because it all could have been prevented. Nobody ever mentioned any of this to us,” Nick Catone says.

Nick Catone’s new 31,000-square-foot gym is a tribute to his son. It will open Sept. 8.

“This has been a dream of mine. It's gonna be hard to 100 percent enjoy it because I don't have my son. But I know he would want me to keep going,” Catone says.

The Catones say that a date for vaccine court has not yet been set.