Dell Children’s Medical Center Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Dell Children’s Medical Center Patients and Families

The Types of Dell Children’s Medical Center Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles Dell Children’s Medical Center lawsuits in Austin, Texas, over pediatric emergency and trauma care, children’s surgery and anesthesia, and NICU and newborn care. Our hospital malpractice lawyers build each claim from the child’s own records, unit by unit. We then work with pediatric medical experts who can show what that child’s care called for and where it fell short.

The cases we see most often at a children’s hospital like Dell Children’s Medical Center include:

• Pediatric emergency and trauma care errors. A child’s sepsis, meningitis, appendicitis, head injury or internal injury can be missed or treated late, or a needed scan can go unordered or be misread. A dose not matched to the child’s weight, or a discharge before a dangerous condition was ruled out, can cost a child the hours when treatment would have worked. Our lawyers for pediatric malpractice claims in Austin line up the triage times, weight-based doses and imaging orders against what the child’s symptoms called for.
• Pediatric surgery and anesthesia errors. A nerve, blood vessel or organ can be injured during a child’s operation, or a problem with the sedation dose, the airway or the child’s breathing can go uncaught. Bleeding or infection after brain and spine, heart or other surgery can be recognized too late, or a procedure can be done on the wrong site, bringing more operations and additional recovery time. Our attorneys for children’s surgical error cases in Austin compare the operative report with the anesthesia chart, the sedation record and the recovery notes.
• NICU and newborn care errors. A premature or critically sick baby’s breathing, oxygen, infection, feeding or IV line problem can go uncaught or untreated, and a medication can be given at the wrong dose. For a newborn with a known fetal condition, the delivery or the first hours of care may not follow what the plan required. Harm in the first days of life can affect how a child grows, so our birth injury attorneys serving Austin families follow each change through the NICU flowsheets, oxygen settings and medication records.

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

About Dell Children’s Medical Center on Mueller Boulevard in Austin

Dell Children’s Medical Center is a children’s hospital at 4900 Mueller Blvd in Austin, Texas, and calls itself Dell Children’s Medical Center at Ascension Seton. Its location page lists 24/7 pediatric emergency care, brain and spine care, heart transplant care, mental health and fetal care. ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer lists Ascension Seton as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

The hospital’s emergency department page calls it a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center offering round-the-clock care for severe illness and injury. Dell Children’s also describes a Level I Children’s Surgical Program, whose surgical team can include anesthesiologists and surgical nurses, and a pediatric procedure sedation center. The Heart Center and neurosciences are among the other services it names.

For the youngest patients, the hospital’s Level IV NICU cares for preterm and critically sick babies, with neonatologists, physicians who specialize in newborns, on site. The Texas Department of State Health Services lists Dell Children’s as an Advanced Neonatal Intensive Care (Level IV) facility. An on-campus Specialized Delivery Unit serves pregnancies with fetal conditions, and the hospital says its partnership with UT Health Austin brings together specialists, medical students and researchers.

Dell Children’s Medical Center North Campus and Dell Children’s – Cedar Park are separate locations from the Mueller Blvd hospital. Our Austin medical malpractice lawyers also handle claims at other Austin hospitals, each a separate hospital with its own page. They include Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, in the same Ascension Seton system, and St. David’s Medical Center.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Dell Children’s Medical Center, the Doctor, or Both?

A family can file a lawsuit against Dell Children’s Medical Center, a doctor, or both, depending on whose care hurt the child and who that provider worked for. Under Baptist Memorial Hospital System v. Sampson, a Texas hospital can be responsible for negligence by employees such as its nurses, acting within the scope of their work. A physician the hospital does not employ answers for his or her own care.

Dell Children’s shares responsibility for a physician it does not employ only on proof of all three elements of ostensible agency. The family must show a reasonable belief that the physician was the hospital’s agent or employee. The hospital must have created or knowingly allowed that belief, and the family must have justifiably relied on it.

Whether a pediatric specialist, an anesthesiologist, a neonatologist or a nurse worked for the hospital is a question of fact, and the records answer it. Families looking for a lawyer to sue a hospital should expect that answer to shape who the claim names.

A parent brings the claim on the child’s behalf. Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code requires written notice to each provider at least 60 days before suit. It also requires a qualified expert’s report within 120 days after each defendant answers.

Caring for a seriously ill child carries real risk, and a hard outcome is not always negligence. When an injury to a child could have been prevented, those responsible for the care should be held accountable. Our Austin hospital malpractice lawyers explain how these claims are brought against any hospital in the city.

Does Texas Medical Malpractice Law Cover Every Injury a Child Suffers at Dell Children’s Medical Center?

Texas medical malpractice law does not automatically cover every injury a child suffers at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Under Section 74.001(a)(13) of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, coverage turns on a claim’s substance and facts, not its label or location. Loaisiga v. Cerda presumes coverage when a claim rests on a provider’s conduct during the child’s care, treatment or confinement, a rebuttable presumption.

The statute calls a covered claim a health care liability claim. It reaches treatment, or a lack of treatment, that causes injury or death. It also reaches a departure from accepted standards of medical care, health care or safety, or of professional or administrative services directly related to health care. The Texas Supreme Court applied that definition in Texas West Oaks Hospital v. Williams.

For a child in any hospital, the definition can reach a dose given in the emergency department or a breathing problem in the NICU. It can also reach a step in an operation or a fall from a hospital bed. Each happens during the child’s care, treatment or confinement, where the Loaisiga presumption applies, and whether it is rebutted depends on the facts.

Renaming a claim does not move it outside Chapter 74 when its substance is still the child’s care. When Chapter 74 governs, its notice, expert report, deadline and damages rules all apply, including the separate deadline Texas sets for a child under 12.

Our attorneys look first at how an injury happened and who was responsible for the child at that moment, and only then decide which rules govern. Wherever Chapter 74 may apply, we meet its requirements rather than betting a family’s claim on an exception.

How We Work With Families of Injured Dell Children’s Medical Center Patients

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice claims in Austin, Texas, for families whose children were hurt during care at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Our hospital negligence lawyers work with a family from the first call through a settlement or a jury verdict. We take on the records, the experts and the other side so parents can stay focused on their child.

A parent or guardian usually makes the first call for a child, and it reaches a member of our intake team. Tell us what happened, which units cared for your child, and who was involved, as far as you know. Our team works to make sure you are heard, and what you tell us sets the direction of our review.

We request the complete records on your family’s behalf. Our attorneys and medical professionals read the pediatric emergency and trauma records, the imaging and lab results, and the operative, anesthesia and sedation records. They also review PICU and NICU nursing notes, medication administration records with the doses given, growth and weight charts, and fetal care and Specialized Delivery Unit records. Admission and discharge dates, discharge instructions and billing statements show what was done and when.

From there, our lawyers deal with the hospital, its insurers and its attorneys, so your family does not have to. Our board-certified patient advocates stay in contact with you and explain each development in plain language as it happens. Our hospital malpractice attorneys pursue a settlement that reflects what the injury will mean for your child in the years ahead. When an offer falls short of that, we are prepared to take your case to a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at Dell Children’s, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice claims in Austin, Texas, for children and parents after care at Dell Children’s Medical Center. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim and which providers may be responsible. Our attorneys read the records from each unit that treated your child before giving you that answer.

Our team is here for you, and what you share with us stays confidential. You pay no fee unless we win. Contact us to understand your options.