Austin Medical Malpractice Lawyer

The Cases Our Austin Medical Negligence Law Firm Handles

Medical malpractice claims from Austin take many forms, and Hastings Law Firm’s work centers on misdiagnosis, surgical errors, birth injuries, pediatric malpractice, hospital negligence, and medication and anesthesia errors. Our attorneys also take on dangerous drug injury and doctor malpractice cases, and they build each claim by comparing the medical records with what the accepted standard of care required.

Austin families come to us most with these claims:

• Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis. For some symptoms, a provider needs to consider and reasonably rule out the most dangerous causes, and a diagnosis can go wrong when that step is skipped. A late diagnosis can mean harder treatment and a poorer outlook than an early one would have. Our misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose lawyers read each provider’s notes for the possible causes that were considered and set aside. They also ask whether a single test would have settled the question.
• Surgical errors. A sponge or surgical instrument left inside a patient can cause pain, infection, and a second operation to remove it. In surgical error claims, we go through the sponge and instrument counts from each operation, looking for a count that was skipped or signed without being done.
• Birth injuries. Too much force during a difficult delivery can injure the nerves in a baby’s shoulder and arm, and a newborn’s jaundice or breathing trouble can go untreated. A child can recover from some of these injuries and live with others for life. Our birth injury attorneys study the delivery notes and the nursery charts from the baby’s first days, and judge each step against the safer options the team had.
• Medication errors. A drug that needs close monitoring, such as a blood thinner, can be given without the lab checks it calls for, leading to internal bleeding or a stroke. For medication error claims, we set the dosing orders beside the lab results that should have guided them, which reveals any dose given before the results were back.
• Anesthesia errors. A breathing tube can end up in the food pipe instead of the windpipe, and the brain can go short of oxygen until someone notices. Our anesthesia malpractice lawyers compare the airway notes with the carbon dioxide readings that confirm where a tube sits, and work out how long the patient went without enough oxygen.
• Pediatric malpractice. Many children’s medicines are dosed by weight, so a wrong weight in the chart or a slipped decimal point can give a child many times the intended amount. An overdose that large can damage a child’s heart, liver, or brain. In pediatric malpractice claims, our attorneys redo the math behind every dose using the weight in the chart, so a miscalculation cannot hide.
• Hospital negligence. Many hospitals set criteria for calling a rapid response team when a patient’s vital signs worsen, and a patient’s condition can slide when staff do not make that call. A decline caught hours late can mean a stay in intensive care and additional recovery time. Our hospital negligence lawyers trace the vital signs charted on the unit and name the hour the hospital’s own criteria said to call for help.

These are the most common medical malpractice claims we see in Austin, but they do not represent every case type we accept. If another kind of medical error harmed you or someone you love, contact us, and an Austin medical malpractice attorney at our firm can go over it with you.

How Our Austin Medical Malpractice Lawyers Handle Your Claim

When an Austin family calls Hastings Law Firm about a medical malpractice claim, our lawyers start by finding out what went wrong. We request and review your medical records, consult medical experts when the case calls for them, and keep you informed while the claim moves toward settlement or trial.

That starts with where the care happened, which can be anywhere patients are treated, including clinics, physicians’ offices, outpatient surgery centers, and hospitals. In Austin, many families receive care at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas or St. David’s Medical Center. Many children are treated at Dell Children’s Medical Center or Texas Children’s Hospital Austin, and other patients are seen at hospitals and clinics across Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties.

Wherever you were treated, your first conversation is with an intake specialist, who asks about the care, who provided it, and when it took place. We then request your medical records at our own expense, and our attorneys and medical professionals review them.

If the records leave questions, we turn to a medical expert who practices the same kind of medicine as the care you received. A specialist can say what the accepted standard of care required in that field. Texas generally requires that opinion in an expert report early in the lawsuit, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 74.351. We line it up while the records are still under review.

Once the review is done, we owe your family an honest answer. If a claim cannot go forward under Texas law, we explain the reason. Other steps may be open to you, for example a complaint to the Texas Medical Board, which can discipline physicians.

If the law supports a claim, each provider receives the written notice Texas requires before we file. The county is decided under Section 15.002, which generally points to a county where all or a substantial part of the care occurred. For care in Austin, that is generally Travis County, whose civil district courts sit at the Civil and Family Court Facility, 1700 Guadalupe Street, Austin, Texas 78701.

When care took place in Williamson County, the case may belong in its district courts at the Justice Center, 405 Martin Luther King Street, Georgetown, Texas 78626. In Hays County, the district court and District Clerk are at the Hays County Government Center, 712 South Stagecoach Trail, San Marcos, Texas 78666. Appeals from all three counties generally go to the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, at 209 West 14th Street, Room 101, Austin, Texas 78701.

Once we accept your case, board-certified patient advocates on our team stay in contact with you. They reach out when something noteworthy happens, so your family hears about each development from someone who knows the case.