Suzan Cardwell has been trying cases for physicians and hospitals in state and federal courts for nearly thirty years. Her trial work has included representing physicians in virtually every specialty. She has been appearing before the Texas Medical Board with physicians for nearly as long. The overwhelming majority of the cases Suzan has handled on behalf of healthcare clients have been closed with a judgment in favor of the healthcare provider. She has tried multiple cases in which a patient had catastrophic brain injury, life-altering physical injury, or death and her healthcare client received a jury verdict in their favor exonerating them of negligence. She also advises and represents healthcare providers in all areas of their practice in dealing with patients, employees, healthcare contracts, peer review, and day-to-day practice issues. Her healthcare clients have numbers for her direct access twenty-four hours a day if they need her. Whether representing a Texas Medical Center institution, a small community hospital, a first year resident, or a specialist of many years experience, Suzan works to make the attack of a medical negligence lawsuit or Texas Medical Board claim go away with the best outcome possible and the least emotional trauma possible to the victim of the attack.
Suzan's ability to help juries understand how a poor patient outcome is completely unrelated to the actions of a healthcare provider has been instrumental in many of the favorable verdicts that her clients have achieved. For example, a 12-year-old boy, sent home from the emergency room, died 24-hours after his release. The E.R. nurse advised the emergency room physician on duty of the boy's lab results. She provided the results of the wrong patient. This was discovered after the child's death. FCJ obtained a verdict for the hospital based upon a causation defense.
In another case, a 50-year-old female patient presented to the E.R. with bilateral armpit pain. Her EKG showed acute changes. It was late and the emergency room physician missed the changes. The patient was sent home. The patient died from an MI two weeks later. The autopsy revealed an old MI consistent with the timing of the E.R. visit. No medical expert could be found to support not hospitalizing the patient at the time of her E.R. visit. FCJ presented a defense explaining that a mistake can occur even in the exercise of reasonable care. The verdict was in favor of the physician.
In the O.B. arena, Suzan has tried and defended many cases. For example, she defended a physician in a case in which the internal fetal monitor strip revealed no beat-to-beat variability. There was thick meconium. Attempts at a scalp pH were unsuccessful. For more than an hour, the physician pondered whether to section. Vaginal birth interceded. A severely brain damaged infant was born. At trial, the mother, who was an R.N. with professional delivery experience, claimed she begged for the physician to do a section. The verdict was for the physician. In one of the other OB cases in which her client was exonerated by jury verdict, the physician was accused of inappropriate Pitocen administration, causing a ruptured uterus, and failure to perform a timely C-section. The infant was delivered by vacuum extraction; and although surviving, had severe CP and mental handicap. The multiple OB and maternal-fetal experts presented by plaintiffs even included an OB originally hired by the hospital who claimed Suzan's physician client was negligent.
In another case representative of the types of cases which Suzan has tried and won, Suzan represented a psychiatrist whose young patient took his girlfriend hostage at her place of work, took her life, and was killed himself during police force intervention. The young patient had been hospitalized for depression by other psychiatrists on multiple occasions. The patient had been last hospitalized following an earlier incident in which he held a gun to his girlfriend's head threatening to kill her; and after releasing her, continued to threaten to kill himself for several hours before voluntarily surrendering to his brother. The discharge from that hospitalization was within three weeks of the deaths. The patient subsequently saw Suzan's psychiatrist client as an out patient with the last visit being just two days prior to taking his girlfriend's life and being killed himself by intervening police fire. The families of the patient and the deceased girlfriend brought the suit. Key to the jury verdict was presenting to the jury all of the evidence that allowed the physician, as well as the family of the young patient, to believe during the care that subsequent to the last hospitalization, the young patient was not suicidal or homicidal. Also important for the jury was presentation of evidence demonstrating how difficult it is to actually predict homicide or suicide, which countered claims by the opposing expert of multiple warning signs.
Suzan lives and ranches in Waller County where she raises world-class cutting horses. She owned the 1991 National Cutting Horse Association World Champion Bob Acre Doc and rode him to the 1994 NHCA Non-Pro World Championship. Suzan also received American Quarter Horse Association recognition as the breeder of the 2002 World Champion Cutting Horse, Abrakadabracre.
Suzan Cardwell
Born and raised in Nocona, Texas, Admitted to Bar, Texas, 1976.
Contact
713-222-6025
cardwell@fcj.com
Education
- Baylor Law School (JD), 1976
- University of Texas at Arlington (BA), 1973
Honors & Distinctions
- American Board of Trial Advocates
- Baylor Law Review
- Baylor Law Review Energy Symposium, Editor
- Houston Bar Association President's Award for Outstanding Legal Article
- Frequent speaker and author on medical-legal issues. Representative articles and presentations:
Who is a Healthcare Provider under HB4?, Texas Bar CLE, Advanced Medical Malpractice Course - 2004
Medical Malpractice Tort Reform From the Defense Perspective, State Bar Litigation Section Report The Advocate, Volume 23, Summer 2003
Contending with the Rambo Lawyer at Trial, University of Houston Law Center - CLE, Advanced Medical Malpractice Litigation
Use of a Lawyer in Your Practice, Hermann Hospital - presentation to University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston house staff
Professional Affiliations
- Greater Houston Society for Healthcare Risk Management, Member
- Texas Association of Defense Council, Member
- National Health Lawyer's Association, Member
- Texas Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- Admitted to Southern District