MD Anderson Cancer Center Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for MD Anderson Patients and Families

The Types of MD Anderson Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles MD Anderson Cancer Center malpractice lawsuits in Houston, Texas, against the institution, the physicians and groups who practice there, and its staff. Our attorneys handle claims over cancer surgery errors, chemotherapy and radiation dosing errors, and infection and monitoring failures.

The cases we see most often at specialty cancer hospitals like MD Anderson include:

• Cancer surgery errors. A technical mistake during an operation, an injury that goes unrecognized in the operating room, or a breakdown in the handoff to the next team can cause lasting damage. Correcting it can take further surgery and additional recovery time, and it can push back the treatment that was planned next. Our Houston surgical malpractice lawyers read the operative report against the orders and nursing notes that follow it.
• Chemotherapy and radiation dosing errors. These treatments work within narrow margins, so a dose calculated wrong, a mix-up between drugs or patients, or radiation delivered to the wrong site can injure healthy tissue and organs. That harm can be permanent, and it can interrupt the treatment a patient was counting on. Our Houston medication error lawyers check the prescribing orders, the pharmacy records, and the treatment plan they were meant to follow.
• Infection and monitoring failures. Cancer treatment can leave a patient less able to fight an infection, which makes infection control and a quick response to an early warning sign matter more. A slow response can turn a treatable infection into critical illness or the loss of a family member. Our Houston hospital infection lawyers examine the monitoring records, the culture results, and how quickly staff acted on them.

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

About MD Anderson Cancer Center

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a cancer hospital in Houston and a component institution of the University of Texas System. The Texas Legislature created it under the Education Code. It is a public institution rather than a private hospital, and that is what decides which rules apply to a claim against it.

Its inpatient hospital sits on the Texas Medical Center campus in Houston and has more than 700 inpatient beds. MD Anderson is also one of the nation’s original three comprehensive cancer centers, designated under the National Cancer Act of 1971.

Its other locations around greater Houston also provide cancer care. A claim can arise from care given at one of them as readily as from an admission at the main hospital. The current Houston-area locations are:

• MD Anderson Cancer Center (Texas Medical Center, the inpatient hospital)
• MD Anderson West Houston
• MD Anderson Sugar Land
• MD Anderson The Woodlands
• MD Anderson League City
• MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center
• MD Anderson Northwest Houston Surgical & Specialty Care
• Gynecologic Oncology Clinic at The Woman’s Hospital of Texas

Can You File a Lawsuit Against MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Doctor, or Both?

You may be able to file a lawsuit against MD Anderson Cancer Center, against an individual provider, or against both, depending on who was responsible and who employed them. A hospital answers for the negligence of the people it employs, including the nurses, pharmacists, and technicians who carry out a treatment plan. It answers separately for its own decisions, from staffing levels to the safety systems meant to protect patients.

Not every provider who treats a patient at a hospital is employed by it. Some work through their own groups or under other arrangements, and the answer is rarely obvious from a bill or a chart. That question decides who is named as a defendant and which set of rules governs the claim against each of them, which is why it is settled first.

Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code also requires a written report from a qualified medical expert early in the case. Whether you need a lawyer to sue a hospital, a physician’s group, or both, the work begins with identifying every health care provider or facility involved. Our Texas hospital negligence lawyers explain vicarious liability, corporate negligence, and how that report requirement works. Our Houston medical malpractice lawyers also represent patients injured at other Houston hospitals, including Woman’s Hospital of Texas and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Is MD Anderson a Government Hospital, and How Does That Change a Malpractice Claim in Texas?

MD Anderson Cancer Center is a government hospital, and that changes the notice a patient has to give, the amount recoverable, and the choice of who is sued. It is part of the University of Texas System, which makes it a public institution. A claim arising from care there can fall under the Texas Tort Claims Act, Chapter 101 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.

Written notice of the claim generally has to reach the institution within six months of the incident. That notice describes the injury, when and where it happened, and what happened. It is not required when the institution already had actual notice. Actual notice means it was actually aware of the injury or death, of the people involved, and that its own fault may have contributed to it.

Six months is the deadline for the notice, not for the lawsuit. The ordinary two-year deadline to file a Texas medical malpractice case still applies, and the notice requirement runs alongside it rather than in place of it.

The Act also limits the damages that can be recovered, at amounts far lower than the limits in a claim against a private hospital. MD Anderson is part of the University of Texas System, so the state limit in Section 101.023 applies. That limit is $250,000 for each person and $500,000 for each single occurrence for bodily injury or death.

The Act also allows a claim only when the injury comes from one of two sources. One is an employee’s use of a motor vehicle or motor-driven equipment, and the other is a condition or use of tangible personal or real property.

Who is sued matters just as much, because the Act makes that choice permanent. Suing the institution bars a later claim against an individual employee over the same care, and suing the employee bars the claim against the institution unless the institution consents. Establishing who employed each provider therefore comes before anything is filed.

Stricter rules and a shorter clock are a reason to have the conversation early, not a reason to assume nothing can be done. Our Houston hospital malpractice lawyers explain how the Act applies to a claim against a public hospital.

How We Work With Injured MD Anderson Patients

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice claims for MD Anderson Cancer Center patients and families in Houston, Texas. When you call about care at MD Anderson Cancer Center, you speak with a member of our intake team. A family member can call on behalf of a patient who is still in treatment.

Share what happened and when, along with the names of the providers you remember. Our team works to make sure you are heard, and your account becomes the starting point for our review.

We request the complete medical records for you, and the review is built on them. Our attorneys and medical professionals compare the treatment plans, the medication and dosing orders, the operative notes, and the monitoring records. Read together, they show what was ordered, what was given, and where the care departed from the plan. When our hospital negligence lawyers accept a case, those records and the physicians who can interpret them become its foundation.

As your attorneys, we handle every contact with the hospital and the lawyers who represent it, so you never deal with them on your own. Our board-certified patient advocates stay in contact with you and explain each development in plain language as it happens. Our hospital malpractice attorneys press for a settlement that reflects what the harm has cost you and your family. When an offer falls short, we are prepared to take the case to a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at MD Anderson, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice claims in Houston, Texas, when care at MD Anderson Cancer Center, or at one of its Houston-area locations, left a patient worse off. Our hospital negligence lawyers will review what happened and tell you who may be responsible, and we will say so plainly when we believe a bad outcome was not malpractice.

Our team is here for you. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim, and what you tell us stays confidential. You pay no fees or costs unless we win. Let us help you find the answers you deserve.