In Texas, there are two types of lawsuits that can be filed when tragedy falls on you or your loved ones. The most significant difference between the two lawsuits is that wrongful-death plaintiffs recover damages for their own injuries, while survival plaintiffs recover damages for the injuries suffered by the decedent.

• Decedent just means a person who has died. 
• The types of injuries in a survival claim are to the decedent’s health, reputation, or person. 
• The types of injuries in a wrongful death action are injuries to the claimant arising from the decedent’s death. 

To prove a survival action, the plaintiff must establish that the decedent, before she died, had a cause of action for an injury covered by the Survival Statute. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.021. 

If the decedent died before bringing an action that survives, the survival plaintiff may bring the action as the legal representative of the decedent’s estate. If the decedent died after bringing an action that survives, the survival plaintiff may continue the action by filing a “suggestion of death” with the court, entering an appearance, and prosecuting the suit in her own name as the legal representative of the estate.