Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Patients and Families

The Types of Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm takes on Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital lawsuits in The Woodlands, Texas, arising from labor, delivery and NICU care, emergency diagnosis, and surgical care. Our hospital malpractice lawyers assemble every such claim from the patient’s full chart. We then ask independent physicians to weigh each decision in that chart against the accepted standard of care.

The cases we see most often at a hospital with a full childbirth center like Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital include:

• Labor, delivery and NICU errors. A fetal heart tracing that shows distress can be missed or left without a response, a cesarean can be put off too long, or a planned vaginal birth after cesarean can be managed without the care its risks call for. Trouble with a premature or sick newborn’s breathing, an infection or a feeding problem can also go unnoticed, and an injury at birth can shape the rest of a child’s life. Our fetal monitoring error lawyers and NICU malpractice attorneys match the monitor tracing to the labor notes and the newborn’s chart, hour by hour.
• Emergency department diagnosis delays. A stroke, heart attack, internal bleeding or serious infection can be missed in the emergency department, or the test that would have shown it can be read late. A patient who needed admission can also be sent home, and the lost hours can turn a treatable condition into permanent harm. Our emergency room malpractice attorneys and stroke misdiagnosis lawyers trace each test from the moment it was ordered to the moment someone acted on the result.
• Surgical errors. During a minimally invasive, robotic-assisted, digestive, colorectal or thoracic operation, a nearby organ, nerve or blood vessel, or the bowel itself, can be cut or punctured. Bleeding, a leak or an infection can also go unrecognized once the operation is over, which can mean a return to the operating room and additional recovery time. Our surgical error lawyers and postoperative care attorneys read the operative report beside the recovery room and floor nursing records.

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

About Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital in Montgomery County

Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital is a Houston Methodist system hospital at 17201 Interstate 45 S., The Woodlands, TX 77385, that serves communities in Montgomery County. Houston Methodist distinguishes the campus from its flagship hospital in the Texas Medical Center. The Woodlands campus offers an emergency department, a Childbirth Center with a Level III NICU, surgery, and heart and stroke services.

Births take place in the hospital’s Childbirth Center, which lists obstetric hospitalists on hand 24/7, wireless fetal monitoring and birthing suites. It also offers VBAC deliveries, meaning a vaginal birth after a cesarean. The center’s NICU, a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, gives 24-hour monitoring to high-risk and premature babies. On the state’s maternal facility list, the Department of State Health Services places the hospital at Level III, and its neonatal facility list does the same for the NICU.

The hospital’s services page lists general, minimally invasive, robotic-assisted, digestive, colorectal and thoracic surgery, along with the DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and stroke care. Neurology, orthopedics and sports medicine, rehabilitation services and women’s health round out its main service lines. An emergency department appears on the hospital’s license in the state’s licensed hospital list, kept by Texas Health and Human Services.

Our The Woodlands medical malpractice lawyers work with injured patients and their families in The Woodlands. Our firm also handles claims involving care at Houston Methodist Hospital, the system’s hospital in Houston, and Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, another Houston Methodist hospital there. The same is true of care at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center, a Memorial Hermann hospital in Shenandoah.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Houston Methodist The Woodlands, the Doctor, or Both?

A patient may have a claim against Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital, the treating doctor, or both, based on who provided the care and whose employee that caregiver was. The Texas Supreme Court’s opinion, Baptist Memorial Hospital System v. Sampson, recognizes that an employer is liable for an employee’s negligence within the scope of employment. Holding a hospital liable for a doctor outside its employment takes another legal basis.

Each doctor or other clinician involved answers personally for the treatment they gave. When the hospital’s own employees took part, their negligence on the job can also become the hospital’s responsibility. For a physician outside that employment, one possible basis is ostensible agency. It requires proof that the patient reasonably believed the physician worked for the hospital and that the hospital created or knowingly allowed that belief. The patient must also have justifiably relied on it.

Medicine carries risk, and not every bad result means someone was negligent. When harm was preventable, though, the providers responsible for it should be held accountable. Our Houston hospital malpractice lawyers explain in more depth how a hospital’s liability differs from a physician’s.

For families looking for a lawyer to sue a hospital, sorting out who employed each caregiver is an early step in a Houston Methodist The Woodlands lawsuit. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 74 then calls for a qualified expert’s report, which is generally due 120 days after each defendant files an original answer. Failing to serve it can lead to dismissal of the claim.

Are Labor and NICU Records From Houston Methodist The Woodlands Protected by Texas Peer Review Law?

Labor and NICU records from Houston Methodist The Woodlands generally fall outside Texas peer review protection when made or kept in the hospital’s regular course of business. Qualifying peer review and medical committee records and communications are generally protected, subject to statutory limits and exceptions. Those protections come from Texas Health and Safety Code Section 161.032 and Occupations Code Section 160.007, and Section 161.032(f) excludes business records from them.

In practice, a Texas hospital can hold two very different kinds of paper about the same birth. One belongs to the care itself, and the other belongs to any committee that later studies the quality of that care.

Peer review is the process in which a hospital’s committees look back at the care its practitioners gave. A qualifying committee’s own records and proceedings, and what people tell it, are the protected kind. Under Section 160.007(e), that material is “not subject to subpoena or discovery” without a waiver the committee signs in writing. Anyone seeking it must plead and prove that waiver.

The care record is the other kind. Section 161.032(f) says the protections do not reach “records made or maintained in the regular course of business” by a hospital. For a birth, that usually covers the fetal monitoring strips, the nursing and physician notes through labor, the delivery record and the NICU record. Whether a particular item exists, and what it shows, is a question for each case.

For a family, a birth injury claim rests on that care record and on independent medical experts who read it, not on any internal hospital review. Asking early for the mother’s records and the baby’s records, as two separate requests, keeps each patient’s chart from being overlooked.

How We Work With Injured Houston Methodist The Woodlands Patients and Their Families

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice cases for Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital patients and families in The Woodlands, Texas. Each case begins with a call to our intake team, which a relative can make for a patient too ill to do it. Our team records what happened, when, and who provided the care, and works to make sure each account is heard.

Our firm then gathers the complete records for you. In a birth case, those include the fetal heart rate monitoring strips, the mother’s prenatal records and her labor and delivery records, and the baby’s NICU record. Other injuries call for emergency department records, operative and anesthesia records, imaging and lab results, medication records, nursing notes and discharge records. Our attorneys and medical professionals study them alongside independent physicians to pin down each decision, each missed sign, and the timing of both.

When our hospital negligence lawyers take on your case, the hospital, its insurer and its defense attorneys deal with us instead of you. Our board-certified patient advocates keep you informed, explaining each new development in plain language when it happens. We pursue a settlement that matches the full cost of the injury to your family. If the offer falls short, we are prepared to take your case to a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at Houston Methodist The Woodlands, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm reviews Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital malpractice claims in The Woodlands, Texas, for patients hurt by negligent hospital care and for their families. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim, and to identify the providers whose care is in question.

Our team is here for you. The review is confidential and free, and if we take your case, you owe no fee unless we win. Let us help you find the answers you deserve.