Huntsville Memorial Hospital Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Huntsville Memorial Hospital Patients and Families

The Types of Huntsville Memorial Hospital Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm’s hospital malpractice lawyers handle Huntsville Memorial Hospital lawsuits in Huntsville, Texas, over labor and delivery care, emergency diagnosis and transfer, and surgery. Our attorneys build each lawsuit from the patient’s complete chart and from medical experts in the field of care involved. We use that evidence to show where the care fell below the standard and what the harm has cost.

The cases we see most often at a community hospital like Huntsville Memorial include:

• Labor, delivery, and newborn care errors. A baby’s heart rate changes can go unanswered, a needed cesarean can be delayed, or a mother’s bleeding or blood pressure problem after delivery can be missed. A newborn’s warning signs can also be overlooked while rooming in, and an injury at birth can bring a child years of therapy and care. Our birth injury lawyers and fetal monitoring error attorneys line up the monitor strips with the nursing notes and the delivery record.
• Emergency diagnosis and transfer delays. In the emergency department, a stroke, heart attack, internal bleeding, or serious infection can go unrecognized, or a transfer to a higher level of care can come too late. Those hours can decide whether a condition is still treatable, and losing them can mean permanent harm or the loss of a loved one. Our failure to diagnose lawyers rebuild the visit from the triage assessment, the test results, and the time each order was written.
• Surgical errors. A bile duct can be injured during gallbladder removal, the bowel can be perforated during a colectomy or hysterectomy, or bleeding or infection after an operation can be missed. Repairing that damage can take more surgery, a longer hospital stay, and additional recovery time. Our gallbladder surgery error lawyers and surgical error attorneys trace each step of the operation and follow the patient’s condition through recovery.

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

About Huntsville Memorial Hospital, a Level IV Trauma Center in Walker County

Huntsville Memorial Hospital is an acute care community hospital at 110 Memorial Hospital Drive in Huntsville, Texas, serving the residents of Walker County. The hospital describes itself as not-for-profit, and its emergency department is a Level IV trauma center open 24/7. Huntsville Memorial Hospital’s services also include maternity care, surgery, heart and vascular care, imaging, stroke care, rehabilitation, and infusion.

The emergency department says its team includes “board-certified emergency physicians and Certified Emergency Nurses,” and a registered nurse assesses each patient on arrival. The Level IV designation, which the state calls Basic, appears on the Texas Department of State Health Services roster of trauma facilities. DSHS also lists Huntsville Memorial as a Level I maternal facility, and the hospital’s women’s health services include obstetric triage and Level I neonatal care.

Mothers labor, deliver, and recover in private birthing suites on the maternity unit, and the hospital’s maternity page explains induction and cesarean delivery. Newborns room in with their mothers, and perinatal nurses continually monitor both mother and baby. Newborn hearing testing is part of that care.

The surgery department performs general, endovascular, orthopedic, OB/GYN, and thoracic surgery, including appendectomy, laparoscopic gallbladder removal, hysterectomy, colectomy, and joint replacement. Sam Houston State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine offers a family medicine residency in partnership with the hospital. Most of that training takes place on or near the hospital campus, with rotations in the emergency department, OB and maternity care, surgery, and inpatient care.

Our Huntsville medical malpractice lawyers represent patients and families throughout Huntsville and Walker County. We also represent patients of hospitals south of Huntsville, such as HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe in Conroe and Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital in The Woodlands.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Huntsville Memorial Hospital, the Doctor, or Both?

You may be able to sue Huntsville Memorial Hospital, the doctor who treated you, or both, depending on who gave the care and who employed each provider. The Texas Supreme Court has held that an employer answers for negligence by its employees acting within the scope of their work. A hospital’s responsibility for a physician it does not employ needs a separate legal basis.

Each physician, nurse, or other clinician who treated the patient remains responsible for his or her own care. The hospital can be responsible for negligence by the people it employs, such as nurses on its staff, while they are doing their jobs. For a physician outside its employment, the usual basis is a doctrine called ostensible agency, which depends on what the hospital led the patient to believe.

For a family looking for a lawyer to sue a hospital, one of the first tasks is learning who employed each provider in the chart. Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code also requires a report from a qualified medical expert, generally within 120 days after each defendant files its original answer. A claim without that report can be dismissed.

Medical care carries risk, and a poor result is not proof of negligence on its own. When an injury was preventable, the providers responsible should be held accountable. Our hospital malpractice lawyers handle negligence claims against hospitals across the Houston region and the communities north of it.

Does an Independent Contractor Notice Keep Huntsville Memorial Hospital From Answering for an ER or Delivery Doctor in Texas?

An independent contractor notice does not by itself keep Huntsville Memorial Hospital from answering for an ER or delivery doctor in Texas. Under Baptist Memorial Hospital System v. Sampson, a hospital answers for a physician it does not employ only when the patient proves all three elements of ostensible agency. Signs and signed forms calling physicians independent contractors are evidence on those elements, weighed with the whole record.

Ostensible agency has three parts, and the patient has to prove each one. The belief that the physician was the hospital’s employee or agent must have been reasonable. That belief must have come from the hospital, because it held the physician out as its own or knowingly let the physician do so. The patient must also have relied on the belief, and the reliance must have been justified.

The hospital in Sampson offered evidence that “signs were posted in the emergency room” describing the emergency physicians as independent contractors. It also produced consent forms, signed by patients, that explained the same arrangement. On that record, the court held the hospital had taken no affirmative act to make patients think those doctors were its employees.

That holding was a ruling on the evidence in one case. It did not create a rule that any sign or signed form ends a claim against a hospital, and the facts of each case still decide the question.

Some responsibility is untouched by any notice. A physician remains responsible for his or her own care. The hospital also answers for negligence by its own employees acting within the scope of their work, such as nurses, when they are in fact its employees.

At Huntsville Memorial, the question matters most in the emergency department and on the labor and delivery unit, where patients arrive needing care quickly. Physicians in training from the Sam Houston State University residency also rotate through both areas. Each physician’s role, and who employed him or her, has to be established from the records rather than assumed.

Our attorneys gather the admission and consent forms the patient signed and read exactly what they said. We also look for any notices posted where the patient was treated and at how the bills arrived. How the patient ended up in that physician’s care, and the names and roles recorded in the chart, complete the picture. When the evidence points to a physician’s own error, our doctor malpractice lawyers bring that claim directly.

How We Work With Injured Huntsville Memorial Hospital Patients and Their Families

Hastings Law Firm’s hospital malpractice lawyers work with injured Huntsville Memorial Hospital patients and their families in Huntsville, Texas, from the first phone call until the case is resolved. A member of our intake team answers that call, and a family member is welcome to place it for a patient too ill or injured to call. Our team works to make sure you are heard.

Tell us what happened and who was involved, as well as you can remember, and our review begins with your account. We then request the complete medical records on your behalf. Depending on the care, our attorneys and medical professionals read the emergency department and triage records, labor and delivery records, fetal monitoring strips, and newborn and nursery records.

Operative and anesthesia records, nursing notes, medication records, transfer records, and the admission and consent papers show each decision and when it was made. If our hospital negligence lawyers accept your case, we build it on those records and on the medical experts who can explain them. From then on, we handle every contact with the hospital, its insurer, and its attorneys.

Our board-certified patient advocates stay in contact with you, tell you when something important happens, and answer your questions in plain language. We press for a settlement that reflects the full cost of the injury to 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 Huntsville Memorial Hospital, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice claims in Huntsville, Texas, for patients and families harmed by care at Huntsville Memorial Hospital. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim and which providers may be responsible. That answer comes after our attorneys and medical professionals have read the records.

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