What This Page Covers:
- Negligence: Pediatric malpractice includes misdiagnosed test results, incorrect prescriptions, and poor communication, leading to serious consequences for children and families.
- Contributing Factors: Causes of pediatric malpractice include intoxicated healthcare providers, fatigue, understaffing, inadequate training, and unfamiliarity with new equipment.
- Legal Process: Establishing liability requires proving duty, breach, causation, and damages, supported by evidence like medical reports and expert testimony.
- Davis & Davis: With over 70 years of experience, Davis & Davis helps families secure compensation and justice for pediatric medical malpractice cases.
- To schedule a free consultation, call us at (888) 522-9444 or fill out our contact form.
When you take your child to their pediatrician, you expect a certain standard of care to be exercised. When this duty is breached due to negligence, the aftermath can be overwhelming, confusing, and disheartening. Misdiagnosed test results, incorrect prescription medications, and inadequate communication are all forms of medical malpractice that can result in serious consequences for the child and their family.
If your child is currently facing the consequences of being treated with negligent medical care, your family is owed damages for the incurred losses, bills, and suffering. With over 70 years of combined experience, Davis & Davis is here to offer professional and compassionate service with the goal of getting you the financial compensation and justice you need to start fresh.
What Constitutes Pediatric Medical Malpractice?
Healthcare providers, including pediatricians, nurses, telehealth professionals, and more, are held to a prevailing standard of care. This means that they are required to provide the same level of care to every patient, no matter the circumstances.
For many pediatric medical malpractice claims, the resulting factor is the same: failure to adhere to their duty. This manifests itself through misread test results, inadequate communication amongst staff or patients, incorrect prescription medications, and more.
Often, the major factors contributing to this malpractice include:
- Showing up to work intoxicated or under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Excessive tiredness or lack of adequate sleep or breaks
- Understaffing
- Inadequate training
- New equipment
The consequences of the negligence of your child’s pediatrician can range in severity. For example, if they misread a vital test result or fail to properly diagnose a medical condition, your child can go untreated, often escalating side effects and making the condition worse. No one deserves to suffer because their doctor acted recklessly, which is where our team at Davis & Davis comes in.
How a Houston Pediatric Malpractice Attorney Can Help
While you focus on your family and your child’s recovery, a Houston medical malpractice attorney can immediately get to work building your case by completing the following:
Establishing Liability
In order to establish the pediatrician as liable for your child’s injuries, negligence must be proven. This is done through the four components of negligence, which include duty, breach, causation, and damages. For example, the expected duty of care is for the pediatrician to assess your child’s initial injury and prescribe medication. When they fail to properly read test results and prescribe the incorrect dosage and medication for treatment due to tiredness or intoxication, this is deemed a direct breach of care.
In order to demonstrate your child has been directly affected by negligence, our team will collect and assess any relevant and time-sensitive evidence. This can include medical reports with the test results, provided treatment options, and resulting injuries, as well as medical testimony.
Adhering to Filing Regulations
Filing a claim on your own behalf is possible, but it’s important to remember that insurance companies are not on your side. It’s likely your claim, when filed without the help of a dedicated Houston medical malpractice lawyer, will be met with a low settlement or even possibly dismissed due to failure to adhere to any imposed regulations.
Texas currently has a two year statute of limitations deadline in place. This deadline begins the day of the occurrence or the day of reasonable discovery. If you are approaching this deadline or are unsure of when exactly this deadline is, our team is more than happy to assist you.
Fighting for a High Settlement
Medical malpractice injuries can leave the victim in debt and with serious emotional trauma to work through. Your Houston medical malpractice attorney will fight for a settlement that adequately covers the cost of your actual losses, including compensation for the following:
- Economic losses: For tangible losses, like the cost of emergency hospital visits, prescription medications, and past, present, and future medical visits, economic damages are there to alleviate the accumulated debt. There is currently no cap on economic damages in Texas.
- Non-economic losses: Non-economic damages cover the cost of losses that are not so easily measured, like pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and anxiety and depression. In Texas, there is currently a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages.
- Punitive damages: For cases in which the healthcare professional is found to have acted in a grossly negligent manner, your attorney can help you file for and recover punitive damages. Gross negligence occurs when the trusted professional does something intentionally or knowingly reckless.
We understand financial compensation is sometimes the only viable route back to a happy and healthy future, which is why we fight as hard as we do for your rights.
Consult a Dedicated Pediatric Malpractice Attorney
Don’t try to navigate the whirlwind of a pediatric medical malpractice claim alone. With the help of a knowledgeable attorney from Davis & Davis, you are giving yourself the best chance at the outcome your family not only deserves, but needs. Our team possesses the compassion, dedication, and steadfast knowledge of the legal workings of a medical malpractice case to help you recover the highest settlement possible.
For a free case evaluation, please don’t hesitate to fill out our contact form or call our office at (888) 522-9444. We proudly accept referrals from Texas attorneys and law firms nationwide.
