North Dallas Medical Malpractice Lawyer

The Cases Our North Dallas Medical Negligence Law Firm Handles

Missed and delayed diagnoses, birth injuries, surgical and anesthesia errors, medication errors, pediatric malpractice, and hospital negligence top the list of cases Hastings Law Firm handles in North Dallas. We also take doctor malpractice and dangerous drug injury cases, and in every claim we compare the care in the medical records with what a careful provider would have done.

North Dallas families come to us most with these claims:

• Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis. A test result can go unread, or serious symptoms can be written off as nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, the illness can move past the stage when it was easiest to treat. Our misdiagnosis attorneys and failure to diagnose lawyers compare the symptoms reported at each visit with the tests ordered, to find any visit that missed a needed test.
• Surgical errors. An operation can damage a structure outside the surgical plan, or warning signs after the procedure can be missed. Another operation and additional recovery time can follow. AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network lists wrong-site surgery as a never event, one that is serious, clearly identifiable, and usually preventable. In surgical error cases, our lawyers compare the operative report with the surgical plan to see whether the damage happened outside the planned procedure.
• Birth injuries. Changes on the fetal monitor that show a baby in distress can go unnoticed, or a needed cesarean can be put off too long. Parents can then face years of therapy, equipment, and support as their child grows. The chart usually shows when a cesarean was decided on and when it began, and our birth injury lawyers measure that gap against what the fetal heart tracing showed.
• Medication errors. Drug interactions can go unchecked, and a patient can be given the wrong strength or a medicine prescribed for someone else. The harm can range from a reaction that needs urgent treatment to lasting organ damage. In medication error claims, our attorneys compare every dose the patient received with the order behind it and look closely at any mismatch.
• Anesthesia errors. An anesthesia dose can be miscalculated for the patient’s size or health, or the team can fail to respond when breathing slows or oxygen falls during sedation. A brain deprived of oxygen for even a few minutes can suffer permanent damage. Our anesthesia error lawyers measure each dose on the anesthesia record against the patient’s weight and medical history and flag any amount that was unsafe for that patient.
• Pediatric malpractice. Parents can describe a child’s worsening symptoms at visit after visit without anyone recognizing them, or a specialist referral can come too late. Harm in the growing years can last a lifetime. The vital signs and growth measurements from each visit help our pediatric malpractice attorneys see when the numbers called for action, and whether anyone acted.
• Hospital negligence. When a unit is short of nurses, or a warning is lost in a shift change, a patient’s decline can go unnoticed. Bedsores, infections, and falls that care should have prevented can each add days to a hospital stay. Our hospital negligence attorneys read the nursing chart one shift at a time for the hours a patient went without a recorded assessment.

These are the most common medical malpractice claims we see in North Dallas, but they do not represent every case type we accept. If a different medical error has harmed you or someone you love, one of our North Dallas medical malpractice lawyers can look into what happened.

How Our North Dallas Medical Malpractice Lawyers Handle Your Claim

Families who bring a claim to Hastings Law Firm get a medical malpractice lawyer in North Dallas who finds out what went wrong and keeps them informed. Our attorneys review the records with our medical professionals, bring in medical experts where a case needs them, and take the claim toward a settlement or a jury’s verdict.

Every claim traces back to a place where care was given, such as a family practice, a walk-in clinic, a surgery center, or a hospital. On the north side of the Dallas area, many families receive care at Medical City Dallas or Methodist Richardson Medical Center. Farther north, many are treated at Medical City Plano or Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano. Others are seen at smaller hospitals, clinics, and practices across Collin and Denton counties.

Whatever the setting, the first call goes to our intake team, where someone asks about the treatment, when it happened, and which providers were involved. We then gather your medical records at no cost to you, and our attorneys and medical professionals study them.

The records sometimes show plainly what happened. In other cases we ask a medical expert to review the care, often a specialist from the provider’s own field. A specialist can say what the accepted standard of care required in that field. Because Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 74 generally requires an expert report early in a lawsuit, our experts join the review from the start.

When that review is done, we give you a straight answer. If the records do not support a claim, we explain why, and you may still have other options, such as a complaint about a physician to the Texas Medical Board.

If the law supports a claim, we give each provider the written notice Texas requires and then file suit. The county is generally one where a substantial part of the events behind the claim occurred, under Section 15.002, the Texas rule on where a suit is filed. For North Dallas, that can mean Dallas, Collin, or Denton County.

In Dallas County, the civil district courts and the District Clerk are in the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building, 600 Commerce Street, Dallas, Texas 75202. The clerk’s office is in Suite 103. Collin County’s district courts sit in the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building, 2100 Bloomdale Road, McKinney, Texas 75071. Denton County’s district courts are at 1450 East McKinney Street, Denton, Texas 76209.

Appeals from Dallas and Collin County district courts generally go to the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas, at 600 Commerce Street, Suite 200, Dallas, Texas 75202. Denton County appeals generally go to the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, at 401 West Belknap Street, Suite 9000, Fort Worth, Texas 76196.

From filing through settlement talks or trial, our board-certified patient advocates stay in touch with you. When something noteworthy happens, they tell you what it means, and they answer any question you bring them.