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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Plaintiff's attorney has 3 weeks to reform deceased client's med-mal suit

In January 2009, the Southeast Texas Record reported that Hazel Adams and her step-daughter Glynis Haggerty, on behalf of the late Joseph Adams, filed suit against two local doctors, alleging the physicians' negligence led to his death.

On Aug. 4, defendant Dr. Marsha Thigpen moved for summary judgment after learning that Haggerty died on July 7.

"As a matter of law, her death terminated her or her estate's claim in this pending lawsuit," the summary judgment motion states, adding that the wrongful death statute provides only for the victim's immediate family.

A hearing on the matter was held Aug. 29 in Judge Bob Wortham's 58th District Court.

A court official told the Record that the judge would grant Dr. Thigpen's motion in three weeks, unless plaintiff's attorney Leland M. Irwin is able to restructure the suit to comply with Texas Civil Code requirements.

The suit claims Joseph Adams died in April 2007 because Drs. Margaret Lang-Williams and Thigpen failed to properly treat his significant blood loss.

Court records show Joseph Adams, 63, was admitted to Promise Specialty Hospital of Southeast Texas in Nederland on March 29, 2007, with a history of end-stage renal disease and renal cell carcinoma.

He also had a status post nephrectomy, a history of tracheal stenosis with chronic repiratory failure, a history of valvular heart disease with subacute bacterial endocarditis, aortic stenosis, congestive heart failure and a history of dementia, the suit states.

The suit's other defendant, Dr. Lan-Williams, was non-suited on July 27, court records show.

Attorney Marc Calvert of the Houston law firm Calvert & Associates represents Dr. Thigpen.

Case No. A182-977

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