Houston Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Are You a Victim of Medical Malpractice?
If you were injured at the hands of a medical professional, a successful medical malpractice lawsuit can bring your family the compensation you need to pay for your medical bills, future medical treatment, and lost wages. Houston medical malpractice lawyer Denise Bradshaw understands the physical, emotional, and financial impact that medical negligence has on you and your family.
You don’t have to shoulder these burdens alone. Denise Bradshaw will help ensure that your rights are protected, and you receive fair compensation for your losses.
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Why Hire Medical Malpractice Lawyer Denise Bradshaw?
All Houston medical malpractice lawyers are not equally equipped to handle the challenges that may arise in a complicated medical malpractice case. While you will likely see many personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys advertising throughout the Houston, TX area, not all of them are knowledgeable about medical procedures, or have experience dealing with insurance companies’ unscrupulous ways.
When you hire experienced medical malpractice attorney Denise Bradshaw to handle your medical malpractice case, you’ll get:
- Client-focused legal services throughout the entirety of your medical malpractice case. Our Houston medical malpractice law firm takes pride in maintaining continuous communication as medical malpractice cases progress. We are here to answer your questions, address your concerns, and keep you updated on changes in your medical malpractice case.
- Results-oriented legal representation. Some medical malpractice attorneys focus on getting a fast settlement from the insurance company, without considering the financial burdens medical malpractice victims may face in the future. Our law firm has earned a reputation for winning large settlements and jury awards on behalf of medical malpractice victims.
- A medical malpractice attorney who won’t back down. When you hire Denise Bradshaw to handle your medical malpractice claim, she will face off with the insurance company in court if necessary to make sure negligent healthcare professionals are held accountable for the harm they have caused.
If you have suffered injuries or illness due to a medical error on the part of your healthcare provider, our medical malpractice law firm can help you recover compensation for your losses. Call Houston medical malpractice lawyer Denise Bradshaw at (409) 220-8000 to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
What Qualifies as Medical Malpractice?
When doctors and other medical professionals breach the duty of care they owe to their patients and a patient suffers a serious injury, their medical negligence may qualify as medical malpractice in Texas.
Physicians and other health care providers must uphold a standard of care when treating their patients. Generally, the standard duty of care for medical professionals is the accepted methods used by other competent medical providers when faced with similar conditions and circumstances.
Not every medical error constitutes medical negligence or medical malpractice. If you were injured by a medical error, medical malpractice lawyers can help you understand more about how to know if you have a medical malpractice case.
Examples of Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice claims involve wide-ranging situations in which doctors fail to meet the basic care standards for their patients. Some of the most common types of medical negligence a medical malpractice law firm sees include:
Diagnostic Errors
Medical malpractice cases often involve the failure to diagnose a patient, or making an incorrect diagnosis. For example, you complain of common symptoms that would indicate type 2 diabetes, but your medical provider fails to run the appropriate tests to diagnose diabetes. Without a proper diagnosis, you lack the medications you need, and your organs are damaged.
Medical professionals cannot always immediately identify the ailments from which patients suffer. However, if another physician in similar circumstances would have discovered the condition, your medical provider’s failure to diagnose it may constitute medical negligence.
Improper Treatment
Sometimes, medical malpractice occurs when a medical provider fails to administer the appropriate treatment for a patient’s condition. For example, this may include advising a treatment course of only radiation when other medical professionals would have suggested additional medical procedures like surgery or chemotherapy.
To constitute a medical malpractice claim for improper treatment, medical malpractice lawyers will need to show that other physicians with similar training would have suggested another treatment course, and that it would have prevented a personal injury or likely improved your prognosis.
Surgical Error
Surgical errors can occur shortly before surgery, on the operating table, or during recovery. When a surgical error happens, severe injury, permanent disability, or wrongful death can result.
Some of the most often occurring surgical errors include performing the procedure on the wrong patient, doing surgery on the wrong body part, performing the wrong procedure, and leaving a surgical instrument inside a patient.
Medication Errors
Patients rely on doctors, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, and other medical providers to determine the correct types and dosages of medications they require, as well as to identify any possible interactions. Should a healthcare provider fail to do so, painful side effects, allergic reactions, or another type of personal injury can occur.
Over-prescribing, such as when pill mills prescribe addiction, is another type of medication error that can lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Common Causes of Medical Malpractice
An estimated 250,000 deaths attributed to medical mistakes occur each year across the U.S. With appropriate care and safety protocols in place, most medical errors are avoidable. Varying factors contribute to such incidents. These include, but are not limited to:
Lack of Proper Training
If health care professionals lack the appropriate training and experience, it may compromise patient safety. Although they go through stringent education requirements, those in the medical field often need hands-on time with patients to hone their skills. Proper training helps ensure that medical professionals are prepared to handle patients’ specific medical needs and the various situations that may arise.
If healthcare workers are not trained to recognize or report medical errors, severe personal injury or wrongful death may occur. When inadequate training causes injuries or death or medical malpractice victims, the hospital, clinic, or other medical facility can be held liable for damages.
Breakdown of Communication
Often, more than one medical professional is involved in the treatment and care management of a patient. Doctors, nurses, technicians, and other staff commonly work together to ensure the correct diagnosis and treatment of patients’ conditions. Should they happen, communication breakdowns lead to medical errors in many cases, as important information may not get passed on to all those involved in the care process.
Inadequate Patient Safety Policies
Doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other medical facilities should have procedures and policies in place for workers to follow that aim to prevent avoidable medical mistakes. Not developing or implementing effective standards may increase the potential for such errors to occur, and for patients to suffer injury or illness as a result.
Staffing Issues
Some hospitals and medical facilities struggle to maintain adequate staffing numbers to handle their patient volume. Overworked and having more patients to keep track of than they should, medical providers in these situations sometimes fail to appropriately attend to the needs of those in their care. As a result, patients may suffer injuries or contract illnesses they otherwise would not and should not have.
Do You Need to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Houston?
Patients rely on their health care providers to provide the treatment they need when they fall ill or suffer a personal injury. Despite their obligation to meet appropriate standards of care for their patients, medical professionals are sometimes negligent or otherwise make mistakes that cause personal injury to those in their care. As a result, patients may be left suffering with significant adverse health effects, some of which have lifelong implications.
If you suffered a personal injury or illness due to the actions or inaction of a health care provider, team, or facility, filing a medical malpractice lawsuit can help you recover compensation to help you pay for your medical bills, future medical needs, and lost wages. You may also be able to receive compensation for your physical pain and psychological suffering.
Medical malpractice attorney Denise Bradshaw will help you decide who to sue, the types of compensation you may receive, and what you must prove for a successful claim.
Who to Sue for Medical Malpractice Injuries
Depending on the circumstances, you may hold one or several of varying parties liable for the damages you incur due to harm suffered as a result of medical mistakes. Among those who you may hold responsible include members of your medical team or the facility at which you received the negligent care. Depending on the circumstances, you might seek to hold one party or entity, or multiple parties, responsible for your resulting injuries.
Those whom you may file medical malpractice claims against include:
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Technicians and aides
- Outpatient clinics
- Hospitals
- Medical testing labs
Compensation Available in Medical Malpractice Claims
Through a medical malpractice claim, you may seek to be made as close to financially whole as possible for your resulting losses. In addition to recovering damages for economic losses, such as added medical expenses, lost income, and lost future earning capacity, you may also ask for compensation for less tangible expenses. The non-economic damages for which the court sometimes awards compensation include physical and emotional pain and suffering, and loss of consortium.
A medical malpractice attorney will review how the medical mistake-caused injury or illness you suffered has impacted, and will continue to affect, your life. A lawyer can assist you with identifying the cost of your doctor’s mistake, and aid you with recovering a fair settlement or judgment.
Elements to Prove Medical Malpractice in Houston
Not all adverse medical outcomes reach the level of malpractice. To successfully pursue a claim, you will need to prove several elements. A Houston medical mistake lawyer will help you obtain the necessary records and other evidence to support your claim.
The elements patients must prove to successfully recover damages in medical malpractice claims include:
- The existence of a patient-doctor relationship that entitled the patient to a duty of care
- The duty was breached when the defendant provided care below that of the accepted prevailing standards
- The substandard care caused the injuries or death suffered by the patient
- The patient suffered harm directly due to the substandard medical care
Your Houston medical malpractice lawyer can help you gather medical records, including doctor notes, lab reports, and imaging scans. Medical malpractice lawyers may also enlist the services of medical experts to draw the necessary links between the medical negligence or malpractice that occurred during your treatment and the injury or illness you developed as a result.
Types of Medical Malpractice Cases Our Law Firm Handles
Houston medical malpractice attorney Denise Bradshaw handles medical malpractice cases involving:
- Improper medication
- Birth injuries
- Missed diagnosis
- Delayed diagnosis
- Retained foreign objects
- Inadequate monitoring of vital signs
Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Malpractice Claims
1. Is there a cap on the damages I can recover in a Houston, TX medical malpractice case?
Texas does not limit the economic losses that you can recover for a medical malpractice lawsuit. A limit does exist on the non-economic damages for which you can obtain compensation, however. The state caps compensation for pain and suffering at $250,000 for individual providers and $250,000 each for up to two facilities. Based on these limits, you cannot receive more than $750,000 for pain and suffering in a medical malpractice claim.
2. How long do I have to sue for medical malpractice in Houston?
Like with other types of personal injury cases, Texas imposes a statute of limitations on medical malpractice lawsuits. You generally have up to two years after the date on which the negligent care or omission in care happened to file a lawsuit for medical negligence or malpractice in the state. Failing to take legal action within that time period may cost you your right to recover damages.
Exceptions exist to the statute of limitations, however. In situations in which the injured patient was a minor, the negligent care was provided by a government employee, the injury or illness was not discovered until after the expiration of the statute of limitations, or the patient received ongoing medical care from a negligent provider, the deadline to file a lawsuit may be shorter or longer. Our law firm can help you determine the statute of limitations that applies to your case.
3. How much does it cost to hire a Houston medical malpractice attorney?
The cost of hiring a medical malpractice lawyer to handle your claim will vary. Many attorneys provide legal services in a contingency fee arrangement. If your case settles, or you receive a jury award, you will pay a percentage of your award amount to the law firm to cover your attorney’s fees. If your legal team doesn’t win your case, you don’t pay any attorney fees to the law firm.
4. What if a family member died because of medical malpractice?
The surviving spouse, children, parents, or personal representative of a family member who dies due to a medical mistake may file a wrongful death claim on behalf of the victim’s estate. Among other damages in such lawsuits, surviving next of kin may seek compensation for the deceased’s lost earning capacity, care, and maintenance, as well as for the lost love and companionship, and mental pain and anguish experienced by the family as a result of the death.
The damage caps established under state law apply to wrongful death claims stemming from medical negligence or malpractice incidents. Your medical malpractice lawyer can help you understand more about how the court indexes the cap against the consumer price index to determine limits for non-economic and economic compensation.