Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer or AIDS-three causes that receive far more public attention.

  Although errors may be more easily detected in hospitals, the problems extend to every health care setting, including day-surgery and outpatient clinics, retail pharmacies, nursing homes and home care. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread health problems.

Contrary to well-publicized insurance estimates, very few patients actually file suit against those health care providers. Medical malpractice is the failure of a health care provider to render care in keeping with good and accepted medical techniques or principles. It is a complex area of the law that serves those people who have been injured as a result of the negligence of a physician, registered nurse, dentist, podiatrist, pharmacist, hospital or nursing home.

Examples of medical negligence include failure to properly diagnose or treat an injury; failure to timely diagnose a condition, often depriving a patient of survival chances and leading possibly to more invasive treatment techniques; improperly prescribing or dispensing medications; and conducting improper or unauthorized surgical procedures. When a patient is injured due to medical negligence, that patient can bring suit against anyone who has caused injury to the patient by virtue of a provider's professional negligence.

In Texas, any patient who has been injured due to medical negligence can bring suit. If the injuries are severe, permanent and disabling, a patient's spouse, children or parents may also have a claim. The state of Texas has a two-year statute of limitations for filing medical negligence claims. In other words, a lawsuit must be filed within two years from the date of the conduct that the patient claims caused their injury.

Further, in medical negligence suits, the patient must prove that the treating provider rendered care that was below the required standard. That standard of care is established by the use of highly trained and qualified medical experts.