Scottish Rite for Children Dallas Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Scottish Rite for Children Patients and Families

The Types of Scottish Rite for Children Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles Scottish Rite for Children lawsuits in Dallas, Texas, involving orthopedic and spine surgery, anesthesia and recovery care, and nonsurgical orthopedic treatment. Our hospital malpractice lawyers build each claim from the child’s clinic, imaging, operative, and inpatient records. We then work with medical experts to show where the care fell short and what that cost the family.

The cases we see most often at a pediatric orthopedic hospital like Scottish Rite for Children include:

• Pediatric orthopedic and spine surgery errors. A child can be hurt during scoliosis or spine surgery, a hip procedure, limb lengthening, or another orthopedic operation, including an injury to a nerve or the spinal cord. A complication that is not recognized in time can turn a planned operation into lasting harm and more surgery. Our pediatric malpractice lawyers in Dallas set the operative report beside the surgical plan and the neurological checks that followed.
• Anesthesia and post-operative care errors. Anesthesia can be given or monitored incorrectly for a child, or a change in breathing, circulation, or sensation can go unnoticed during recovery or an inpatient stay. A child can also be discharged before being ready to go home. Our surgical error lawyers in Dallas trace the anesthesia record, the recovery room notes, and the nursing checks hour by hour.
• Physician errors in nonsurgical orthopedic care. A condition can be diagnosed later than it should have been, or treatment through casting, bracing, or clinic visits may not be adjusted when the child’s progress called for a change. A delay can leave a child needing a larger correction later on. Our doctor malpractice lawyers in Dallas compare the clinic notes and imaging over time to find when a change was needed.

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

About Scottish Rite for Children on Welborn Street in Dallas

Scottish Rite for Children is a pediatric orthopedic hospital at 2222 Welborn St. in Dallas, Texas. The hospital describes its focus as pediatric orthopedic conditions, sports injuries, and fractures, along with related arthritic and neurological disorders and dyslexia. Scottish Rite treats children and teens, and age eligibility varies by service.

The Dallas campus page on the hospital’s list of locations names orthopedic and dyslexia clinics, radiology, day surgery, and inpatient care. The same campus lists physical and occupational therapy, orthotics and prosthetics, and movement science. Across its locations, Scottish Rite’s service directory covers spine and scoliosis, hip, hand and upper extremity, foot and clubfoot, limb difference and lengthening, sports medicine, fracture care, and related neurology.

The Dallas hospital is separate from Scottish Rite’s Frisco Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center and its location at The Star in Frisco. The hospital places its Fracture Clinic at the Frisco campus. Scottish Rite does not have an emergency room, and it directs families to an emergency room when a child has a severe injury.

The Dallas campus provides day surgery and inpatient care, including pediatric anesthesia. The hospital’s guide to inpatient surgery describes monitoring after the operation and planning for the child’s discharge.

A child at Scottish Rite may move from clinic visits and imaging to surgery under anesthesia, then to recovery, an inpatient stay, and therapy. Each team keeps its own record, so the account of one child’s care is spread across several charts. The organization behind the hospital is recorded as Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Our Dallas medical malpractice lawyers also represent young patients of other hospitals in the area, including Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and Children’s Medical Center Plano.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Scottish Rite for Children, the Doctor, or Both?

A family may be able to sue Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas, the doctor, or both, depending on whose care caused the child’s harm. Under Baptist Memorial Hospital System v. Sampson, a Texas hospital can be responsible for negligence by an employee acting within the scope of employment. A hospital’s responsibility for a physician who is not its employee needs a separate basis.

One such basis is ostensible agency. The family must show it reasonably believed the physician worked for the hospital because the hospital held the physician out that way or knowingly allowed it. The family must also have justifiably relied on that belief. A hospital also answers for its own conduct as an institution, and each physician answers for the care he or she gave.

Whether a given physician at Scottish Rite is a hospital employee is a question for the records. The records and the arrangements between the hospital and each provider show who employed or contracted each one, and that decides who a Scottish Rite for Children lawsuit names. Sorting that out is the first job of a lawyer to sue a hospital.

A minor cannot sue on their own, so a parent usually brings the claim on the child’s behalf. Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code also requires a qualified expert’s report within 120 days after each defendant answers.

Surgery on a child carries risk, and a hard result is not always negligence. When a child’s injury was preventable, the providers responsible should be held accountable. Our Dallas hospital malpractice lawyers explain how hospital responsibility and the expert report work.

Does a Teenager Treated at Scottish Rite for Children Have Less Time to File Than a Younger Child Under Texas Law?

A patient who was 12 or older when treated at Scottish Rite for Children generally has less time to file than a younger child under Texas law. Section 74.251 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives its special age-14 deadline only to children under 12. An older child’s claim is generally held to the two-year rule, subject to the open-courts limit and tolling.

The two-year rule appears in Section 74.251 itself. A claim must generally be filed within two years of the breach or tort, or of the date the treatment or hospital stay at issue was completed. The rule applies to everyone, whatever their age, except where the section provides otherwise.

The exception is for younger children. A child who was under 12 has until the 14th birthday to file, or to have a claim filed on the child’s behalf. Under the same section, every claim must also be brought within ten years of the act or omission, or it is barred.

The Texas Supreme Court has recognized a constitutional limit on deadlines like these for children. In Sax v. Votteler and later Weiner v. Wasson, the court applied the Texas Constitution’s open-courts guarantee to earlier versions of the rule. The limit applies where a deadline would cut off a child’s own claim before the child can sue personally. Those decisions do not make every child’s claim timely until 18, and how they apply depends on the facts of each claim.

The difference matters at a hospital that treats teens and younger children alike. Scottish Rite lists sports medicine, fracture care, and scoliosis care among its services, and a patient in any of them could be on either side of the age-12 line. Parents should not wait to find out which rule applies to their child.

How We Work With Families of Injured Scottish Rite for Children Patients

Hastings Law Firm works with families in Dallas, Texas, on malpractice claims for children hurt at Scottish Rite for Children, from the first call through settlement or trial. Our lawyers gather the child’s records, secure the opinions of medical experts, and handle every contact with the defense.

Your first call goes to a member of our intake team, and a parent or another relative can make it. Tell us what happened, which clinic or unit cared for your child, and who was involved, as far as you know. Our team works to make sure you are heard, and your account is where our review begins.

We then request your child’s complete medical records for you. Our attorneys and medical professionals read the clinic notes, imaging, operative and anesthesia records, and nursing and therapy notes to establish what was done and when. If our hospital negligence lawyers take your case, it is built on those records and on qualified experts who can explain them.

Once we represent your family, the hospital, its insurer, and its lawyers deal with us, not with you. Our board-certified patient advocates stay in contact with your family and explain each development in plain language as it happens. Our lawyers press for a settlement that reflects what the injury has cost your child. When an offer falls short, we are prepared to take your case to a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at Scottish Rite for Children, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm represents families in Dallas, Texas, in malpractice claims for children harmed by negligent care at Scottish Rite for Children. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim and who may be responsible for your child’s injury.

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.