Texas Children’s Hospital Austin Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for Texas Children’s Hospital Austin Patients and Families

The Types of Texas Children’s Hospital Austin Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles Texas Children’s Hospital Austin lawsuits in Austin, Texas, over a child’s emergency care, a birth or NICU stay, and surgery, anesthesia or intensive care. Our hospital malpractice lawyers build each lawsuit from the child’s own chart and the parents’ account of what they saw. We then work with medical experts who can explain what that child’s care required.

The cases we see most often at a children’s hospital like Texas Children’s Hospital Austin include:

• Pediatric emergency diagnosis and treatment errors. Sepsis, meningitis, appendicitis, dehydration or a breathing emergency can go unrecognized in a child, imaging or lab results can go unanswered, or a medication can be dosed wrongly for the child’s weight. A child sent home before a dangerous condition was ruled out can lose the hours in which treatment would have worked. Our Austin pediatric malpractice lawyers set the triage notes, vital signs and weight-based orders against the timeline of the child’s symptoms.
• Labor, delivery and NICU errors. Fetal distress can go unrecognized or unanswered, a C-section can come too late, or a baby can be hurt during delivery. In the NICU, a newborn’s breathing, blood sugar, jaundice or infection can go untreated for too long, or a medication or feeding error can happen. Our Austin birth injury lawyers read the fetal monitoring strips beside the delivery notes and the NICU flowsheets.
• Pediatric surgery, anesthesia and intensive care errors. A mistake can happen during a child’s operation, or anesthesia or sedation can be dosed or monitored wrongly for the child’s size. A breathing problem after surgery can go uncaught, or changes in the PICU or on the floor can go unreported to a physician, leading to more procedures and additional recovery time. Our Austin surgical error lawyers compare the operative report with the anesthesia record and the nursing notes from recovery.

While these are common claim types, our hospital malpractice attorneys handle any valid medical negligence case that arises at this hospital. If your child’s care does not fit one of them, ask us about it.

About Texas Children’s Hospital Austin on North Lake Creek Parkway

Texas Children’s Hospital Austin is the Texas Children’s hospital campus at 9835 North Lake Creek Parkway in Austin, Texas. The Texas Health and Human Services hospital list places the campus in Williamson County. Texas Children’s describes Texas Children’s Hospital as a charitable, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

The hospital’s pediatric emergency center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for patients from birth through age 21. Imaging, pathology, pharmacy and sedation services support the emergency team. The North Austin Campus also offers pediatric surgery with an Austin anesthesiology team. After microsurgery on the North Austin Campus, the hospital says, children usually go to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and then a regular hospital room for monitoring.

For mothers and newborns, the campus offers labor and delivery services and a NICU. The Texas Department of State Health Services designates it for maternal care at Level II (Specialty Care) and for neonatal care at Level IV (Advanced Neonatal Intensive Care). Its Austin services also include neonatology, cardiology, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, renal care, maternal fetal medicine and fetal care.

Texas Children’s Hospital Austin is a separate hospital from Dell Children’s Medical Center, part of Ascension Seton, and from St. David’s North Austin Medical Center. Each of those Austin hospitals has its own page, and our Austin medical malpractice lawyers handle claims arising at all three.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against Texas Children’s Austin, the Doctor, or Both?

A family can sue Texas Children’s Hospital Austin, a doctor, or both, depending on whose care harmed the child and who employed that provider. Under Baptist Memorial Hospital System v. Sampson, a hospital can answer for negligence by nurses and other employees acting within the scope of their employment.

A physician the hospital does not employ, such as an anesthesiologist in a separate practice, answers for his or her own care. The hospital shares responsibility for that physician only through a doctrine called ostensible agency, and each of its three elements must be proved. Parents would have to prove they reasonably believed the physician was the hospital’s agent or employee. They would also have to prove the hospital created or knowingly allowed that belief, and that they justifiably relied on it.

Treatment at the hospital does not settle the question by itself. The records show which group each pediatric specialist, anesthesiologist or nurse worked for, and that answer decides who a Texas Children’s Hospital Austin lawsuit can name. It is the question to settle early for any parent deciding whether they need a lawyer to sue a hospital, a physician group, or both.

When Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code governs the claim, a qualified expert’s report is generally due within 120 days after each defendant’s original answer.

Medicine carries risk for children as it does for adults, and a bad outcome is not always negligence. When a child’s injury could have been prevented, the providers responsible should be held accountable. Our hospital malpractice lawyers in Austin explain how claims against any hospital in the city are built.

Who Can Bring a Claim Under Texas Law if a Child Dies After Care at Texas Children’s Hospital Austin?

A child’s surviving parents can bring a Texas wrongful death claim if negligent care at Texas Children’s Hospital Austin caused the death. Section 71.004 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives that claim to the surviving spouse, children and parents, meaning the parents of a young child. The child’s own injury claim is separate and, under Section 71.021, survives to the heirs, legal representatives and estate.

We understand that parents who have lost a child may not be ready to think about the law. When they are, it helps to know what each claim covers and who brings it.

The wrongful death claim belongs to the parents. It seeks damages arising from the injury that caused their child’s death, as Section 71.002 describes. The survival claim is the child’s own claim for the injury, which Section 71.021(a) keeps alive after the child’s death, and each claim must meet its own statutory elements.

One or both parents may bring the wrongful death claim for the benefit of everyone entitled to it, under Section 71.004(b). If none of them has begun it within three calendar months after the death, Section 71.004(c) requires the executor or administrator to bring it. That duty ends if all of them ask that it not be brought.

The two claims are usually prepared side by side, because both rest on the same proof that negligence caused the harm. Whether a newborn died in intensive care or a child died after surgery, that proof starts with what the care required and where it failed.

Before anything is filed, our attorneys explain to the family which claim belongs to whom. We gather the child’s records and ask qualified medical experts whether negligence caused the death, and we are candid when the evidence does not support a claim. Our Texas medical malpractice wrongful death guide covers how these claims are brought.

How We Work With Injured Texas Children’s Austin Patients and Families

Hastings Law Firm works with parents in Austin, Texas, on hospital malpractice claims for children and newborns harmed during care at Texas Children’s Hospital Austin. A parent or another family member makes the first call, and it reaches a member of our intake team. Our team works to make sure you are heard, and your account of your child’s care is where our review begins.

We request the complete records for you. Our attorneys and medical professionals review the emergency department records, the labor and delivery records with the fetal monitoring strips, and the NICU and PICU records. They also read the operative, anesthesia and sedation records, medication administration records, nursing notes, vital-sign flowsheets, and the growth and weight records used to set a child’s doses. The names and roles of the clinicians, the group each works for, admission and discharge dates, and itemized bills complete the picture.

If our hospital negligence lawyers take your case, every call and letter from the hospital, its insurers and its lawyers comes to us instead of to your family. Our board-certified patient advocates keep your family informed, answer your questions, and explain each new development in plain terms. Our hospital malpractice attorneys press for a settlement that accounts for what the injury will cost your child in the years ahead. When an offer falls short, we are prepared to take your case to a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at Texas Children’s Austin, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm’s hospital malpractice lawyers in Austin, Texas, review what happened to children and parents after care at Texas Children’s Hospital Austin. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim, and against which providers. That answer comes after our team has read the records of your child’s care.

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.