Archive for the 'Heparin' Category

Heparin overdose of Quaid twins spurs $500,000 hospital settlement


A year and a half ago, the heparin overdose of actor Dennis Quaid’s twins was big news. The legal settlement just announced in the case isn’t as big of a news story to most media, but it’s also very significant.

The Associated Press reports that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has offered a $500,000 settlement in the case, which the Quaids have accepted. Half of that money will go to each of the twins: Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone. Also, Cedars-Sinai will pay for any additional medical care the Quaid twins ever need related to their injury, though they seem to have recovered.

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Archive for the 'Heparin' Category

Quaid’s heparin ordeal underscores need for a heparin lawsuit


For Houston-born actor Dennis Quaid, star of Disney’s The Rookie, The Alamo and The Parent Trap, the pain of almost losing his twin children to a heparin overdose remains quite real. On today’s Oprah Winfrey Show, a tape revealed Quaid on an emotional visit to the Los Angeles hospital where the near-tragedy occurred, and he then discussed the event with hostess Oprah Winfrey, who assessed other defective drug dangers.

As Winfrey pointed out, more people die from medical mistakes each year in America than from breast cancer, AIDS and car accidents — combined. That’s not a problem. It’s an epidemic. And epidemics demand action.

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Archive for the 'Heparin' Category

Heparin remains a lethal threat


Heparin remains a lethal threatAgain, the blood thinner heparin is in the news – and it’s not good news.

Fourteen babies in a Corpus Christi hospital recently received an accidental heparin overdose. Two of the babies – twins — have died. Several have been discharged, while the others are being closely monitored.

This tragedy recalls the highly publicized event last November when film star Dennis Quaid and his wife’s infant twins were given an overdose of heparin which was 1,000 times more than needed. The problem then involved potentially confusing packaging, not to mention, ultimately, the carelessness of hospital personnel. The problem in Corpus Christi apparently involved an error in the mixing process in the hospital pharmacy at Christus Spohn Hospital South.
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