Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, and to some of the busiest burn reconstruction programs in the South. If someone else caused your burn, a legal claim can pay for every stage of that reconstruction — but Texas gives you only two years to act.
Houston's burn care system is anchored by the Memorial Hermann Burn Center at the Texas Medical Center, the region's primary adult burn program and the teaching affiliate of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Acute burn care there flows directly into a long-term reconstructive pathway staffed by burn surgeons and plastic and reconstructive specialists who manage the years of follow-up surgery that severe burns require. The UTMB Blocker Burn Center presence in Houston extends that academic capacity, drawing on one of the oldest and most respected burn research programs in the country.
The Texas Medical Center concentrates extraordinary reconstructive depth in a single district. Houston Methodist Hospital operates a nationally ranked department of plastic and reconstructive surgery within the same complex, and the region's pediatric burns are supported by children's hospital programs experienced in the repeated operations that young burn survivors need as they grow. Between the Memorial Hermann system, the UTHealth academic faculty, and Houston Methodist, a survivor in the metro can access every modern reconstructive technique — scar revision, contracture release, tissue expansion, flap reconstruction, and laser therapy — without leaving the city.
Reconstruction begins after the acute wounds close, and it is almost always staged over years. A typical Houston burn survivor's reconstructive plan may include:
Severe burns often require five to fifteen or more procedures. Children need additional operations as they grow, because scar tissue does not stretch with the body.
Reconstruction in the Texas Medical Center is expensive — individual staged procedures with facility and anesthesia fees routinely run tens of thousands of dollars, and laser series add more. Texas law allows burn victims to recover the full cost of future medical care from the party that caused the injury, but only if those future procedures are documented in a life care plan before settlement.
Texas's statute of limitations for personal injury is 2 years from the date of injury — and because reconstruction routinely outlasts that window, your claim will almost certainly need to be filed while surgery is still ongoing. Claims involving governmental units under the Texas Tort Claims Act carry additional, much shorter notice requirements. See our Texas burn injury guide and the statute of limitations overview.
Yes. Damages in a Texas personal injury case are measured by the reasonable cost of the care you need, not by what your health insurance happens to cover. If your surgeons recommend staged reconstruction at an academic program, your life care plan can project those costs at the rates actually charged in the Houston market.
Often, yes. The Houston area's petrochemical, refinery, and construction industries produce serious burn injuries, and while some employers carry workers' compensation, Texas allows many workers to pursue third-party claims against contractors, plant owners, equipment manufacturers, and other negligent parties. Those claims can recover full reconstruction costs plus non-economic damages that comp does not pay. Non-subscriber employers can be sued directly.
Serious burn cases involving visible scarring and staged reconstruction are among the highest-value personal injury claims in Texas, frequently resolving in the seven figures when liability is clear. Value depends on burn depth and location, the number of projected procedures, lost earnings, and permanent disfigurement. A free case review can give you a realistic range.
Get a free case review from a Texas burn injury attorney.
Texas's 2-year deadline will almost certainly expire before your reconstruction is finished. Filing now preserves your right to have every future procedure paid for by the party that caused your burn.
Start Free Case Review