Dennis & Kimberly Quaid suing drug company
Categories: Health & safety, Celeb parenting, In the news, Alcohol & drugs
There are frivolous legal actions and then there are those that might prevent others from experiencing the same horrific nightmare you or your loved ones went through.
I'd put the suit Dennis and Kimberly Quaid have filed against Baxter Healthcare Corporation, maker of the anti-coagulant Heparin in the latter category. The Quaids are taking action based on their assertion that the company knew of previous dosage mix-ups, yet did not recall shipments of the drug or properly warn hospitals of the dangers.
The packaging of Heparin in the 10-units-per-milliliter vial and the 10,000-units-per-milliliter are virtually identical.
The Quaids' newborn premature twins were accidentally give 1,000 times the recommended dose twice at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center before the error was realized.
The couple had not decided whether to file suit against Cedars-Sinai, saying they want to see what steps the hospital takes to prevent such errors from happening again.
Cedars-Sinai has removed all heparin used for IV flushes from the pediatric unit and will instead use only a saline solution. The hospital is also retraining 1,800 nurses and 200 pharmacy staff members in medication administration, requiring a refresher course before any of them treat patients.
This is not the first time confusion over Heparin packaging has been a problem. In 2006, three premature babies in Indiana died after a hospital had what looks like an identical Heparin dosage mix-up.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tamyu 12-04-2007 @ 11:29PM
Good. Now that someone famous and with money gets involved, they might actually change the packaging.
Nurses have been complaining about this for years, but were shrugged off by the company. There was a near accident in our NICU. It often isn`t the nurses. They`re overworked, etc, and sometimes don`t notice when they get the wrong package delivered from the hospital pharmacy. They look quite literally *exactly* the same. The person who sends them up sends up the wrong one, and unless someone notices it right away all hell breaks loose.
The full strength stuff should never even be in the NICU, so I highly doubt it`s simple error at that level.
(SIL is a pediatric nurse, and complains about this pretty often.)
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CarrieRN 12-05-2007 @ 11:41AM
I think the numbr 10 should be in large letters on the front of the vial in the upright position rather than horizontally. I believe there should be a way to impression on the number 10 on the vial cap or have it raised so there is NO mistaking it as the correct heparin flush. I am with you on this one but being overworked should not be an excuse for not paying close attention to our medications. If you are that tired, call in or have a colleague double check you. We are not union in Texas but simply asking a colleague to doube check should be viewed as the mark of a professional and not as a weakness, Union or not. The Public places their most valued human characteristic in our care - their Trust. we cannot let them down.
mercedes 12-04-2007 @ 11:59PM
I agree, people with money always gains attention. It's the poor folks like us that loses and we gain nothing. Last month my son lost triplets and because we have no money we couldn't even bring a suit against the doctors or anyone else for questionable mal-practice. Make your voice heard, we just cry together as a family.
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lisa 12-05-2007 @ 7:42AM
i am so sorry about your sons triplets...im sorry for any loss of life but especially infants and children but i do want to let you know you dont need money to sue...my son almost lost his life to to a prescription screw up...and i was a divorced mommy with 2 small children...i.e. no money...i took the remainder of the prescription myself and turned it in to the state bureau that deals with those issues and got a report that they had mixed the improper dosage of the 2 ingredients...with that report i went and hired an attorney again with no money and we sued the pharmacy...he took the money from what we won and if we had lost there would have been no collection so there are things you can do without money...and no i didnt see the attorney on tv...i just checked around on my own talking to friends...so i didnt even have to deal with an ambulance chaser....anyway...may God give you peace in your loss....
Kim 12-05-2007 @ 8:45AM
They should also be suing the hospital, I don't care how tired a nurse and/or doctor are mistakes like that aren't acceptable. The rule is that you check the label 3 times before you dispense meds, it's not that hard to see the extra 0's and know that you're giving too much!
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weevet 12-05-2007 @ 9:58AM
You don't know what you are talking about..This has been an ongoing problem for 20 years! Tired has nothing to do with it,,
LS 12-05-2007 @ 10:52AM
I agree that they should be holding the hospital and the staff responsible.
I am the first to stand up and defend the nurses - I know they are tired, often overworked, and very often under-respected by doctors and patients alike.
But.
I worked with little vials of vaccine and other injectable drugs (including heparin) on a daily basis during my time in a veterinary hospital. Granted, the patients were "only" animals, but the consequences of an inaccurate or incorrect drug could be deadly. We were taught, from day one, to triple-check the labels. To *READ* the labels, not just look at a color or a logo or whatever, because companies often change the look of a label. We looked, every time, at the label, and made a mental note of the actual name of the drug we were using.
More than once, we caught ourselves grabbing the wrong drug. But actually taking that extra two seconds to physically READ the label, instead of relying on color, shape, etc., may have saved more than one life. And I firmly believe that it would have saved a lot of heartache in this case, and those of the other infants in Indiana. Heparin and Hep-lock are not spelled the same.
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Summer 12-05-2007 @ 12:37PM
You know, the nurse who inadvertently did this is going to have to live with the guilt of knowing she did this for a lifetime. I feel bad for her.
Nurses are HUMAN and fallible.
I see the drug company as the primary culprit. This is a problem that they KNEW about and refused to do anything about.
They have plenty of money and could have easily rectified this problem years ago.
You almost have to wonder what their motive was for NOT making the changes!?
Were they really worried about the loss of revenue from the packaging?
KUDOS to the Quaids for making the pharmaceutical company sit up and pay attention!
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