Representing Victims of Medical Malpractice in Texas

When you walk into a hospital for treatment, it’s natural to trust that your doctors and nurses will do what is best for you. They are experts in their field, with years of specialized education and training. But doctors and other care providers are people too, and that means they make mistakes. The reality is that every time you are treated by a healthcare practitioner, you are at risk for additional illness or injury due to their negligence.

What Is Failure to Monitor?

Consistent monitoring and assessment of a patient’s condition is a crucial part of maintaining patient health during a hospital stay, or in any other clinical setting. When a doctor, nurse, or other care provider fails to properly monitor a patient’s condition, serious or fatal injury can occur. This is known as a failure to monitor.

Failure to monitor falls under the broader category of medical malpractice. Medical malpractice is considered any act or omission by a healthcare provider that falls below the standard of care and causes injury or death to a patient. In a failure-to-monitor scenario, the healthcare provider failed to supervise a patient during or after care and the patient suffered preventable harm, whether caused by the provider not spending enough time assessing all of the patient’s injuries, failing to follow up with the patient after surgery, discharging the patient too early, or a number of other possibilities.

What Does a Failure-to-Monitor Case Look Like?

In the summer of 2016, a man battling heart failure received a heart transplant at a Houston hospital. While he received the new heart, he also suffered severe brain damage that rendered him unable to walk or talk. An expert hired to review medical records concluded that doctors did not act quickly enough to address problems with the patient’s new heart in the hours after surgery, allowing a lack of blood flow to the man’s brain to leave him permanently disabled, according to ProPublica.

In this case, doctors failed to monitor the patient to ensure that there were no adverse side effects from surgery, leaving him to suffer severe consequences that could have been lessened if proper monitoring led to more prompt treatment.

Proving Negligence in a Dallas Failure-to-Monitor Case

In Texas, there are certain criteria you and your legal team must prove in order to demonstrate that your healthcare provider was negligent and should be considered liable:

  • The doctor-patient relationship existed. Medical documentation from patient visits and treatment will prove that you were treated by the healthcare provider.
  • The doctor was negligent. There must be evidence that a doctor or medical team failed to monitor you, whether it was managing your drug regimen, maintaining follow-up care standards, or ensuring a proper length of hospital stay.
  • The doctor’s negligence is the direct cause of the injury. Your legal team must be able to show that the healthcare provider’s failure to monitor directly contributed to your injury or illness. The hospital’s legal team may try to say that your injury or illness was a normal side effect, not caused by the doctor’s negligence.
  • The injury caused damage. You must be able to show that your injury caused additional medical bills, lost time at work, and/or emotional and mental damage.

Work with Top Dallas Medical Malpractice Lawyers

The Dallas personal injury attorneys at Crowe Arnold & Majors, LLP have over 25 years of experience in medical malpractice law. We know how to do the research, interpret the law, and prove that your illness or injury was more than just a reasonable side effect.

You place your life in the hands of medical professionals, and you shouldn’t have to endure injuries due to their carelessness. When it does happen, you deserve to be compensated for the toll it takes on your life. If you think you’ve suffered due to a healthcare professional’s failure to monitor, call Crowe Arnold & Majors, LLP at (214) 231-0555 for a free consultation.