Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin Patients and Families

The Types of Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin lawsuits in Austin, Texas, arising from labor and delivery, newborn care, emergency care, and surgery. Our hospital malpractice lawyers review each chart with physicians trained in the same specialty as every provider involved. We then show where the care fell below the accepted standard and what the injury has cost the patient and family.

The cases we see most often at a full-service hospital like Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin include:

• Labor, delivery, and newborn care errors. Signs of fetal distress on the monitor can be missed or answered too slowly, a cesarean can be delayed, or a difficult delivery can be handled with too much force. A mother’s bleeding or high blood pressure after birth can go untreated, and a newborn’s breathing, blood sugar, jaundice, or infection can be missed. Harm at birth can shape a child’s health and a family’s life for years. Our Austin birth injury lawyers place the fetal monitoring strips beside the labor and newborn nursing notes to fix when each warning sign appeared.
• Emergency care errors. A stroke, heart attack, sepsis, or internal bleed can be missed or treated late in the emergency department, a needed test can go unordered or be read wrongly, or a patient can be sent home before a serious condition is ruled out. Lost time can turn a treatable condition into permanent disability or the loss of a loved one. Our Austin misdiagnosis attorneys rebuild the visit hour by hour from the triage notes, test orders, results, and discharge instructions.
• Surgical errors. A nerve, blood vessel, or organ can be injured during orthopedic, heart, or brain and spine surgery, an operation can be done on the wrong site, an instrument can be left behind, or a complication can be recognized too late. Repairing that harm can mean another operation, a longer hospital stay, and additional recovery time. Our Austin surgical error lawyers check the surgeon’s operative report against the anesthesia record, the instrument counts, and the vital signs recorded after surgery.

While these are common claim types, our hospital malpractice attorneys handle any valid medical negligence case that arises at this hospital.

About Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, a Full-Service Hospital With 24/7 Emergency Care

Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin is a full-service hospital in Austin, Texas, with 24/7 emergency care. The hospital’s Austin location page lists heart and vascular care, stroke care, maternity services, women’s health, orthopedic care, surgery, behavioral health, neurology, and neurosurgery. Transplant and ventricular assist device care are also offered on the campus.

The hospital’s page describes it as a level IV trauma center, and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) trauma facility roster lists it under Basic Care (Level IV). DSHS also designates it a Comprehensive Care (Level IV) maternal facility and a Neonatal Intensive Care (Level III) neonatal facility.

The hospital says its OB-GYN maternity care teams give each mother a personalized birthing experience. It also provides advanced neonatal care for newborns who need additional support, so a mother and her baby can each be cared for by a different team.

An emergency patient can likewise pass from the emergency department to imaging, a specialist and the operating room. Every team keeps its own chart, and our Austin medical malpractice lawyers read those charts together.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, the Doctor, or Both?

You can sue Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, a physician, or both, depending on who gave the negligent care and who employed that provider. Under Baptist Memorial Hospital System v. Sampson, a Texas hospital can be responsible for negligence by its employees, such as its nurses, acting within the scope of their work. A physician the hospital does not employ answers for their own care.

Treatment at the hospital does not, by itself, make the hospital responsible for an independent physician. The hospital shares that responsibility only if a family proves all three elements of ostensible agency. The patient reasonably believed the physician was the hospital’s agent or employee, the hospital created that belief or knowingly allowed it, and the patient justifiably relied on it.

Whether the obstetrician, the emergency physician, the anesthesiologist, or the surgeon worked for the hospital is a question of fact. The medical records and the hospital’s arrangements with each provider answer it, and that answer decides who is named in a lawsuit against Ascension Seton.

Every claim over medical care in Texas also follows Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. It requires written notice to each provider at least 60 days before suit is filed. A qualified expert’s report is then generally due 120 days after each defendant answers.

A family deciding whether it needs a lawyer to sue a hospital deserves an honest answer. Medical care carries real risk, and a poor outcome is not always negligence. Where an injury could have been prevented, the providers responsible should be held accountable, and our Austin hospital malpractice lawyers can tell you which of them a claim should name. Our firm also represents patients injured at other Austin hospitals, including Dell Children’s Medical Center North Campus and Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas.

When Does the Stricter Texas Emergency Standard Apply to Labor and Delivery Care at Ascension Seton?

The stricter Texas emergency standard applies to labor and delivery care at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin only when that care was emergency medical care in an obstetrical unit. Section 74.153 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code excludes care given after the mother or baby is stabilized and treated as a nonemergency patient. Care unrelated to the emergency is also judged by the ordinary standard.

Under the ordinary standard, a family proves that a provider did not give the care an ordinarily prudent provider would give in the same or similar circumstances. Where the stricter standard applies, the family must prove that departure and also that the provider acted with willful and wanton negligence. The level of proof stays the same, a preponderance of the evidence, which means more likely than not.

Whether care counts as an emergency depends on the statute’s definition in Section 74.001(a)(7). Emergency medical care follows the sudden onset of a condition with acute symptoms, such as severe pain. The symptoms must be severe enough that going without immediate attention could reasonably be expected to put the patient’s health in serious jeopardy.

Much of the care on a labor and delivery unit may never meet that definition. Monitoring a labor that is progressing, a planned induction, or a scheduled cesarean can take place with no sudden, acute emergency at all. Whether a particular stretch of care met the definition depends on the facts, and one delivery can include both kinds of care.

The standard also gives no protection to a provider whose negligence caused a stable patient to need emergency care. When a mother or baby was stable until an earlier lapse in care created the emergency, that provider cannot rely on the stricter standard.

For a family, the dispute with the defense tends to center on when the emergency began and when it ended. Our Texas birth injury lawyers build that timeline from the fetal monitoring strips, the labor and delivery nursing notes, and the newborn’s records, marking which care fell outside the emergency.

How We Work With Injured Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin Patients and Their Families

In Austin, Texas, Hastings Law Firm’s hospital malpractice lawyers handle claims for patients and families injured at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin. Our intake team takes the first call, which a spouse, parent, or family member can make for a patient who cannot, or for a newborn. We listen to what happened and who was involved, and that account tells us which records to request first.

Our team requests the complete records on your behalf. After a birth, those include the prenatal records, fetal heart monitoring strips, labor and delivery nursing notes, delivery and operative reports, anesthesia records, and newborn and neonatal records. After an emergency visit, they include triage and physician notes, imaging and lab results, medication administration records, admission and discharge dates, discharge instructions, and billing statements. Our attorneys and medical professionals read them side by side to establish what was done, what was missed, and when.

If our hospital negligence lawyers accept your case, we handle all dealings with the hospital, its insurer, and the defense lawyers. Board-certified patient advocates on our team stay in contact with you and explain each development in plain terms when it occurs. Our hospital malpractice attorneys pursue a settlement that reflects what the injury has cost your family. When an offer falls short, we are prepared to take your case to a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm represents Austin, Texas, patients and families in hospital malpractice claims over care at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim and which providers it should name. Everything you share with us during that review stays confidential.

Our team is here for you, and you pay no fee unless we win. Let us help you find the answers you deserve.