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With our law firm, Van Wey, Metzler & Williams, we made a conscious decision to only do medical malpractice and birth injury cases.

We're not trying to be a jack-of-all-trades law firm. Even within the personal injury space, we're not trying to do car wrecks and truck wrecks and workers' comp, personal injury, and mass torts and all of that. We're competent to do many of those things, but so are a lot of other lawyers.

There are not very many lawyers in Texas or even nationally who focus exclusively on medical malpractice and birth injury.

One of the things that is of utmost importance to us is our relationships with our clients. Because we're not representing hundreds of clients at any given time, the relationships that we form with our clients throughout the process are critical. Communication is key.

At Van Wey, Metzler & Williams, we measure our client satisfaction by our results and their response to those results. Most people in a medical malpractice case or birth injury case—it's the most devastating thing they've ever dealt with in their life, and most of them have never been in a legal process before. So it's unknown and it's scary. Making sure that we keep them informed and comfortable is the very best way to ensure client satisfaction, and we pride ourselves on that.

In my experience with Van Wey, Metzler & Williams, I really feel like they are top-notch—10 out of 10. They could not have done a better job for me in my situation, and I am extremely happy that I chose them. They absolutely knocked it out of the park and did everything that they possibly could for me in my situation, and I would not choose anyone else.

At Van Wey, Metzler & Williams, our mission is to not only make our clients as whole as we possibly can from the tragedy that befell them, but also to determine the root cause of why it happened and advocate for change in the system. So that for all of the people that come behind them, they stand less of a risk of having it happen to someone else.

So, my situation is pretty unique, I think.

I ended up having a partial knee replacement in 2016, and I had some complications from that. My knee would kind of swell up and go down, swell up and go down, and I couldn't quite figure out what was happening or why it was swelling up. Eventually, it stopped swelling up over the next few months, so I was able to go back to work.

Over the course of the next 18 months or so, it didn’t quite feel right. It felt like something was still off, but the swelling really wasn’t there, so I wasn’t too worried about it. Then one day, my knee swelled up pretty large—I would almost say the size of a bowling ball. That was Thanksgiving morning when it happened.

I went into the hospital and ended up finding out it was a complication from that initial partial knee replacement, and they were able to fix it at that time. But unfortunately, the damage had already been done. I ended up losing blood flow to my foot, and they had to amputate my leg.

When I first came in, I felt like this was going to be great. From the very first impression, the first time talking to the team, I really thought, "This is the perfect fit. This is the group for me."

I would say that Van Wey, Metzler & Williams are extremely personable. They're down to earth. They're very knowledgeable, yet they don’t project themselves in that way. They don’t act like they’re above you. They are right there with you.

They take your situation personally. They took my situation personally and said, “If this happened to me or my family member, how would I respond, and how would I react?” And I felt like they were part of my family.

My son had a surgery, and the surgery went wrong.

He coded, and he… he died from the surgery. So it was a wrongful death.

I would recommend Van Wey, Metzler & Williams to anybody. They made me feel comfortable because it was all about my son. They made me feel like they were going to take care of me.

And I trusted them. I felt like we were on their team too, that they were going to work with us, and we were all equal. Everything was going to be alright.

You know, they worked with us for a long time, and I got to know them. I really appreciated them in the end.

My name is Kay Van Wey. I'm a native Oky. I was born in Oklahoma City and raised in southwestern Oklahoma in Lone, Oklahoma.

My father was a small-town businessman, and my mother was a ballet teacher, so I spent much of my youth in the ballet studio and also in the horse pasture.

Being in the horse pasture was really much more authentic to me than being a ballet dancer. I was that kind of tomboy, pigtailed girl who loved horses.

I think that one of the reasons that I'm such a fighter—and some people might say so feisty—is, you know, my dad might say that I have had a little chip on my shoulder.

Because I've been a victim of a tragic loss, I had to be involved in the legal system as a result of that. I didn't want to be, but I was thrust into that situation. And in certain respects, the legal system treated me well as a victim, and in other cases, the opposition didn't care a bit about my personal feelings or destroying me personally because all they cared about was winning.

So I take extreme offense when anyone tries to walk on my clients because it's as if they're walking on me, and I won't have it.

I was driving down the road the other day, and there was a sign—it was probably outside of a church—and it said, "You were put here for a reason." And I was like, "Oh yeah," you know? Because I have been at it a minute, and sometimes I do look around at my friends who are retired, and I'm like, "Maybe I should pick up golf or, you know, just travel or something like that."

I think it's important that I stay in there and keep fighting to the best of my ability because there aren’t enough of us who are doing so.

And I care because I'm a patient, and everybody I love is a patient. So I have a vested interest in trying to make the healthcare system safer.

What led me to choose Van Wey, Metzler & Williams was, I was in the hospital… you know, not really knowing what had occurred, but feeling like malpractice had happened in some way, shape, or form.

My mother was essentially the catalyst that brought me here. Using her and my grandmother, you know, we were looking for any kind of firm that would take our case and hear us out. Van Wey, Metzler & Williams was the only firm that was offering their services to us.

I was in the hospital after my first surgery to remove a giant cell tumor from my knee. It was my third day on the recovery floor. There were multiple signs that led to compartment syndrome occurring in my leg, and we didn’t know at the time what was going on.

When I made the nurses aware of these signs—these symptoms I was starting to experience days after surgery—they were like, “Oh, don’t worry, you’ll see a doctor later on in the day. They’ll come soon.”

I let them know this was going on at like 2 a.m., right? And I didn’t see a doctor till like 5:30 p.m. And even after assessing me, the doctor was like, “No, it seems like you’re good to go. We’ll get you home today.”

But I still didn’t feel like something was right. I just had this feeling, so I asked, “Can I stay another night?” And it seemed like they were reluctant, but they said, “Okay, you can stay another night.”

As soon as that doctor left, I started going through unimaginable pain. It wasn’t until then that they finally realized my leg was going through compartment syndrome that had been undiagnosed the entire day.

I had to receive emergency surgery, and from that point on, my leg underwent irreparable damage. Even throughout the course of ten months of in-and-out hospitalizations, reconstructive surgeries, my leg was still so damaged and so susceptible to infection that it ultimately had to be amputated.

I would absolutely recommend Van Wey, Metzler & Williams to anyone going through medical misfortune or medical malpractice. I believe I couldn’t have found a better team of people to work with me.

What constitutes medical malpractice? Simply stated, medical malpractice is a deviation from the standard of care.

What is the standard of care? The standard of care is what a reasonably prudent healthcare provider or physician would do under the same or similar circumstances. This requires expert testimony from a similarly trained specialist in the healthcare industry to establish:

• This is the standard of care under these circumstances.
• This healthcare provider or physician violated the standard of care by doing (or failing to do) these things.
• As a result of these actions or inactions, the patient suffered harm.

We understand that people often come to us after experiencing the worst day of their entire lives. That’s why we approach every client with gentleness, care, and understanding.

One of the things I always tell people is: the burden is now mine. The burden is ours to carry forward. You focus on recovery and healing—let us carry the heavy load.

The reason we handle medical malpractice cases goes beyond securing justice for our clients. While we fight to help them achieve some form of recovery and restore what was taken from them, we are also working toward a larger goal: ensuring patient safety and accountability in healthcare.

If there is no accountability in healthcare, the system collapses under its own weight. Without oversight, for-profit healthcare systems, hospitals, doctors, and nurses may prioritize financial gain over patient safety. There must be a check in the system to prevent that from happening.

That check is us.

I have a son. I have one son, and he got in an accident. He was in college at Rice University in Houston. He had a full scholarship, and when he got in an accident, I think the accident didn't cause it, but the hospital, when they were going to do the skin grafting on his hand, he got a cardiac arrest.

And after that, he couldn't—he was locked out. He can't talk, nothing. He was just there. That's my only child, so we were so desperate, and we thought that—even the hospital thought—he was going to die, and I said, "No, he won't."

So eventually, he couldn't do anything. When you pinch, he doesn't hear.

They were perfect. The team was like—I said when we stepped down here the first time, we sat at the table, and we felt at home. At least we got somebody that is able to listen to us.

There's no words to describe it, the way it makes me—they get—I was—they were my backbone. Because I have an accent, when you go see somebody—what that—but they came to my level.

So even the last month, I recommended them to a person that went to the facility. Their son has the same status. Somebody gave my number to the father, who I don't even know, but a nurse gave my number to him and said, "This person has been in this situation before. Call her. You will get with the right person."

So, you know, I gave the Van Wey, Metzler & Williams number to them.

Yo ya había perdido las esperanzas de encontrar un abogado porque sentí como que nadie me podía ayudar.

Alexander, he was born, January 2, 2020. We spoke with a nurse there, because Dr. Sulega was going to check my wife to see how Alexander was doing, then after a minute, or five minutes, the doctor came in and said, no, it’s fine. We can wait.

Pero ya cuando llegué al último mes, ya mi presión estaba muy alta y el doctor decía, "Vas a estar bien. Todavía no es tiempo que nazca el niño."

Fue el peor error de mi vida. Fue la peor pérdida de mi vida.

They found that Alexander had some white spots on the brain because of the lack of oxygen. I can kind of describe—we came up to a wall, just couldn’t find help. Overall, super satisfied, very coordinated team.

The thing I like about them is that they—I mean, he said, "You don’t have to do anything. Just let me see what’s going on. Give me the approval to receive the documents from the hospital, from the doctors," and boom, they went out and took the whole burden.

Nos han ayudado mucho, y siento que mi esperanza otra vez volvió, volvió a vivir.

They tried their best as possible to help out with the process, so I am very, very  satisfied with the team. 

Y pues sí, para mí son los mejores abogados que hemos conocido.

Van Wey, Metzler & Williams realmente cambiaron nuestra vida.

A birth injury at its core is kind of self-defined — it's an injury that occurs during birth, most often to the neonate or newborn during the labor and delivery process. Sometimes it can happen in the prenatal period or immediately following the birth during resuscitation or nursery care. The most common types are a hypoxic-ischemic injury, which is a lack of adequate oxygenated blood getting to the baby and the baby's brain during labor and delivery. There are also shoulder dystocias leading to brachial plexus injuries, which are injuries to the nerves connecting the neck to the shoulder that get ripped out and can cause permanent injury, often resulting in the inability to use the arm for functioning in activities of daily living. Once a baby is born, they sometimes need to be resuscitated to transition from intrauterine — or in the mother's body — to extrauterine, or post-delivery life. There are very specific guidelines, steps, and an algorithm to ensure safe care during this transition, but these are often not appropriately followed, leading to a myriad of different injuries, including hypoxic-ischemic brain injuries.

The number one reason to hire our firm — and myself — when you are suffering from a catastrophic birth injury is because of our experience, tenacity, and passion. There are very few lawyers in the entire country who have handled the number and various types of birth injury cases that we have. There are very few people who are as dedicated to their clients and as passionate about not just representing this client, but making sure that by this client being strong enough and brave enough to come forward and pursue this cause of action, hopefully some other child in the future won't suffer the same injuries because this hospital, this doctor, have been held accountable, and they're on the lookout for the same thing in the future.

I spend an inordinate amount of my time advocating for patient safety. Why? Because I'm a patient, and everyone that I love is a patient. Hi, it's Kay Van Wey, and I'm taking my fight for patients from the courthouse to the statehouse. I'm here today with Representative Cassandra Hernandez. This particular bill that we will be laying out together—both me and Kay Van Wey as our expert witness—makes sure that we are protecting everyday patients who are going to have medical procedures and making sure they fully understand what they are consenting to whenever they're going to have a medical procedure done.

When you go in for any kind of a medical procedure or a surgery, you're asked to sign a lengthy legal disclaimer document. But in Texas, the people who get to decide what goes on that form is a committee comprised solely of physicians and attorneys who represent healthcare providers. So what we're seeking to do is give patients a voice by adding public members to the Texas Medical Disclosure Panel.

One thing I'm trying to impress upon politicians is that they are all patients as well. One thing everyone in this room has in common, whether we are Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, is that every one of us is a patient, and everyone we love is a patient. You see, in Texas and elsewhere, healthcare providers enjoy massive legal protections, while patient rights have been stripped away over time so that the majority of victims of medical malpractice cannot seek justice. I'm here to try and change that.

Kay, you have been a hero of mine for many, many years because I've seen you fight the good fight for patients and really advocate for patient safety. And we need that, because we've got a patient safety crisis in our state but all across our country as well. We were thrilled to get somebody with your experience in law to join our group. We have physicians in our group. We have nurses. We have people who've been harmed or lost a member of their family. We want a diverse group of people who see things from very different perspectives, and you have brought a great perspective to our work on medical boards. Patients need a voice.

So thank you for your time. Let's do something to give patients a voice. I wanted to thank Kay Van Wey for really being a champion for this bill. I'm glad that you are here, and I'm proud to stand alongside you, shoulder-to-shoulder, in that fight.

Please join me in my fight for patient safety, which goes far beyond representing patients in an individual case. Subscribe to my newsletter, visit the website, or follow me on social media, and I will be sure to keep you informed of the progress that we're making. Thank you.