In an update to a story, we brought you two days ago, we just learned that the court issued an order late yesterday dropping El Paso Children’s Hospital from the malpractice lawsuit filed by David and Mariana Saucedo alleging wrongdoing by two doctors and the children’s hospital in the death of the three-year-old daughter.
In 2020, the Saucedo’s filed a lawsuit that included an affidavit where a former El Paso Children’s Hospital doctor alleged that one of the physicians who provided medical care to the Saucedo daughter “presents a real danger to his patients.” In a court ruling in 2022, the Children’s Hospital successfully argued that the affidavit should be removed from the public record. The hospital’s lawyers argued that the affidavit contained “issues that do not belong in the public view.”
The children’s hospital asked Judge Annabell Perez to remove them from the Saucedo malpractice lawsuit arguing that are a contractor to the University Medical Center of El Paso (UMC) making them immune from the lawsuit for alleged negligence.
Yesterday, Perez agreed with the El Paso Children’s Hospital and dismissed the El Paso Children’s Hospital from the Saucedo lawsuit.
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Shortly after the dismissal of the El Paso Children’s Hospital from the lawsuit, the Saucedo family issued the following statement:
“Yesterday, the families and children of El Paso lost. The legal maneuvers of the El Paso Children’s Hospital in claiming governmental immunity, after years of purporting to be a private, independent non-governmental body, has sent a clear message to all El Pasoans – young families cannot trust this hospital with their public about face to hide behind misdeeds. The fact remains, an innocent child died as a result of their backroom deals. Beware.”
As we previously reported, El Paso Children’s Hospital routinely dismisses our open record requests and that of other news media arguing that they are not a governmental body and as such are not subject to the Texas Public Information Act.
Yesterday they convinced Judge Annabel Perez that they are a government entity, and she dismissed them from the lawsuit.
This court ruling makes El Paso Children’s Hospital immune from most lawsuits alleging medical malpractice.
David Saucedo told us that they are proceeding with the lawsuit against the doctors that were included in the original lawsuit.