Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe Patients and Families

The Types of Baylor Scott & White Lake Pointe Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

In Rowlett, Texas, Hastings Law Firm brings Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe lawsuits over emergency and trauma care, labor and newborn care, and surgery. To build each lawsuit, our hospital malpractice lawyers start from the treatment records, the orders and the monitoring data for the patient’s care. We then bring in medical experts to pinpoint each departure from accepted practice and document the harm it caused.

The cases we see most often at a Level III trauma center like Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe include:

• Emergency and trauma care delays. Signs of internal bleeding, a traumatic injury or a stroke may be missed in the emergency department, or treatment can start after the time to act has passed. The result can be permanent disability, further surgery, or the loss of a loved one. Our Dallas medical misdiagnosis lawyers compare the triage times, imaging results and physician orders to show how long each finding waited for a response.
• Labor, delivery, and NICU errors. Fetal distress or a labor complication can go unanswered, or a newborn’s worsening condition in the NICU can be missed or treated late. A birth injury can bring years of therapy and specialist care and reshape daily life at home. Our Dallas birth injury lawyers read the fetal heart tracings against the delivery record and the newborn’s NICU chart, entry by entry.
• Surgical errors. A mistake can happen during orthopedic, vascular, neurosurgical, urologic or robotic-assisted surgery, and a complication after the operation can go unnoticed. The patient may need another operation, a longer hospitalization and more time to recover. Our Dallas surgical error lawyers match the operative report to the anesthesia record and the post-operative nursing checks.

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

About Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe on Scenic Drive

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe is a hospital with more than 140 beds at 6800 Scenic Drive in Rowlett, Texas. Its parent, Baylor Scott & White Health, describes itself on its own site as a not-for-profit health system. Services at Lake Pointe include emergency and trauma care, surgery, intensive care, and labor and delivery with a newborn intensive care unit.

The Texas Department of State Health Services lists Lake Pointe at Level III on its roster of designated trauma facilities. Its emergency department is open 24 hours, cares for traumatic injuries, and includes a Fast Track area.

The emergency team has access to critical-care neurologists for acute stroke, and according to the hospital’s neuroscience page, The Joint Commission certified Lake Pointe as a Primary Stroke Center. Surgical services include robotic-assisted surgery, orthopedics, vascular surgery, neurosurgery and urology, and the hospital has an intensive care unit.

Women’s services include labor and delivery, and the hospital describes its newborn unit as a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Its heart and vascular care includes interventional cardiology. The campus also offers imaging and radiology and inpatient and outpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation.

A patient hurt in an accident may pass from the emergency room to imaging, surgery, intensive care and rehabilitation. A mother may recover from delivery while her newborn receives NICU care. Each team keeps its own record, and our Rowlett medical malpractice lawyers follow those records from one unit to the next.

We also represent families from Baylor University Medical Center, and from Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Irving, both part of Baylor Scott & White Health. East of Dallas, our firm represents patients of Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite as well.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe, the Doctor, or Both?

You may be able to sue Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe, a physician who treated you, or both, depending on who provided the negligent care. Section 74.351 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives the patient 120 days after each defendant’s original answer to serve that defendant with a qualified expert’s report.

A hospital can be responsible for an employee’s negligence on the job and for decisions it makes as an institution, like staffing and safety systems. A physician is responsible for his or her own care. When a physician is not the hospital’s employee, the hospital is liable only in narrow situations, one of which is called ostensible agency.

Under that doctrine, the hospital must have held a physician out as its agent or knowingly let the physician appear that way. The patient must also have reasonably believed it and justifiably relied on it. Hospital records reveal whether a provider was an employee or a contractor, and that decides which parties the claim names. Before a claim names anyone, a lawyer to sue a hospital has to match every provider in the chart with the organization responsible for that provider.

Every treatment carries some risk, so a disappointing outcome is not proof of negligence. When a preventable error caused the injury, the providers who caused it should be held accountable. Our Dallas hospital malpractice lawyers explain vicarious liability, ostensible agency and the expert report requirement in more depth.

When Can a Texas Jury Award Exemplary Damages in a Claim Against Baylor Scott & White Lake Pointe?

A Texas jury can generally award exemplary damages against any hospital, including Baylor Scott & White Lake Pointe, only on proof of fraud, malice or gross negligence. Section 41.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code makes clear and convincing evidence the standard for that proof. Exemplary damages punish a defendant, while ordinary damages compensate the patient.

Chapter 41 defines gross negligence as an act or omission carrying an extreme degree of risk, viewed from the defendant’s position at the time. The defendant must also have actually known of the risk and gone ahead with conscious indifference to others’ safety. In plain terms, that means seeing a serious danger and proceeding anyway. Chapter 41 defines malice as a specific intent to cause substantial injury or harm.

When exemplary damages are awarded, Section 41.008(b) caps them at the greater of two amounts. One is twice the economic damages plus the jury’s noneconomic damages up to $750,000, and the other is $200,000. The statute lists exceptions, so the ceiling is a formula rather than one fixed maximum. In a wrongful death or survival health care liability claim, Section 74.303 also sets an overall per-claimant limit, adjusted for inflation, and exemplary damages count toward it.

For a family, exemplary damages are never automatic. Most malpractice claims rest on ordinary negligence, care that fell below the accepted standard, which does not meet that definition. Records of staffing, orders and monitoring, and of what was known and when, show whether a case could meet it. Our attorneys evaluate those records with medical professionals, and no one can promise a result.

How We Work With Injured Baylor Scott & White Lake Pointe Patients and Their Families

For patients and families in Rowlett, Texas, Hastings Law Firm handles claims over care received at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe. Our hospital malpractice lawyers collect the records, retain the medical experts, and build every claim to stand up in front of a jury.

Your first call reaches a member of our intake team, and a relative can place it when the patient cannot. We work to make sure every caller is heard, since what you tell us about Lake Pointe shapes where our review begins. We then request the complete medical records. Our attorneys and medical professionals go through the emergency, surgical, delivery and NICU records to establish what was done and what was missed.

After our hospital negligence lawyers take on your case, we speak for you with the hospital, the insurance carrier and defense counsel. Our board-certified patient advocates reach out when your case has a noteworthy development and answer your questions in everyday language. We negotiate for a settlement equal to the losses the injury has caused, and if no offer reaches that point, we try the case before a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at Baylor Scott & White Lake Pointe, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm represents Rowlett, Texas, patients and families in malpractice claims over care at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Lake Pointe, beginning with a free case review. We perform that review to find out whether you have a valid claim, working from the records of the care and the providers who gave it.

Our team is here for you, and our Dallas medical malpractice lawyers take on hospital claims across the area. What you tell us stays confidential, and no fee is owed unless we win. Let us help you find the answers you deserve.