Dennis Quaid talks about his twins and medical Negligence

Summary

Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly faced a medical nightmare when their newborn twins were given a thousand times the normal dose of a blood thinner at Cedar Sinai Hospital. The error, caused by confusing drug labeling, nearly killed the babies and led to the Quaids advocating for patient safety. This incident highlights the broader issue of preventable medical errors, which claim 100,000 lives annually in the U.S., and the need for improved hospital protocols and drug labeling to ensure such tragedies are avoided.

Takeaways

• 😷 Dennis Quaid's twins were given a massive overdose of a blood thinner at Cedar Sinai Hospital, highlighting the prevalence of medical errors.
• 🏥 The incident occurred despite the hospital being one of the finest, indicating that medical mistakes can happen anywhere.
• 🚑 The twins were supposed to receive a pediatric blood thinner but were mistakenly given an adult version, which is 1000 times stronger.
• 🤰 Dennis and Kimberly Quaid had a difficult journey to parenthood, having suffered through five miscarriages before the birth of their twins.
• 🆘 A mother's intuition led Kimberly Quaid to check on her children, which was crucial in及时发现 the overdose.
• 🩺 The hospital's failure to notify the Quaids of the error until they arrived the next morning raised questions about communication protocols.
• 💊 The same error had happened before at another hospital, where three infants died from an overdose of the same drug.
• 🔍 Dennis Quaid has become an advocate for medical error awareness, working to understand and prevent such incidents.
• 🏛️ The script mentions a 'conspiracy of silence' in the healthcare industry, suggesting that there's a lack of accountability and transparency.
• 🛑 Baxter International, the manufacturer of the drug, redesigned the packaging but did not recall older stock, which led to the overdose.
• 📉 The incident led to a withdrawal of the drug from the market and increased scrutiny on medication safety.

Q & A

What incident involving Dennis Quaid's twins is described in the script?

Dennis Quaid's twins were given a massive overdose of a blood thinner called heparin at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, which nearly killed them.

What was the intended medication for the twins, and what were they mistakenly given?

The twins were supposed to be given a pediatric blood thinner called heplock, but they were mistakenly given two doses of heparin, the adult version of the drug, which is a thousand times stronger.

How did Dennis Quaid and his wife first become aware that something was wrong with their twins?

Kimberly Quaid had a mother's premonition that something was wrong and called the hospital, but the nurse reassured her that the babies were fine. They later found out about the overdose when they arrived at the hospital the next morning.

What was the immediate physical effect of the overdose on the twins?

The overdose caused the twins' blood to become like water, giving them a complete inability to clot, resulting in them bleeding out. There was blood oozing out of their feet and other puncture wounds.

What was the outcome for the infants in the similar incident at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis?

In the similar incident at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, six infants were given multiple adult doses of heparin instead of the pediatric version, and three of the infants did not survive.

What actions did Baxter International take after the incidents involving heparin?

Baxter International issued a nationwide safety alert and began shipping heparin with a redesigned peel-off label to reduce confusion. However, they did not recall the old stock that was still in hospitals.

What was the role of the hospital's system failures in the incident at Cedar Sinai Hospital?

The hospital's system failures included pharmacy technicians and nurses neglecting to check the drugs they were distributing and administering, leading to the twins receiving the wrong medication.

What steps did Dennis Quaid take to address the issue of medical errors after his personal experience?

Dennis Quaid spent time dissecting what happened, raising awareness about medical errors, and launched a foundation aimed at remedying the situation and preventing similar incidents.

What is the significance of the heparin drug in terms of medication errors according to the script?

Heparin is almost always in the list of top 10 drugs reported for medication errors and is frequently associated with harmful mistakes due to its common use in hospitals and the potential for confusion in labeling.

What is the broader issue that Dennis Quaid is trying to address regarding medical errors in the United States?

Dennis Quaid is trying to raise awareness about the leading cause of death in America due to preventable human medical error, which he describes as a 'conspiracy of silence' where the healthcare system is not aggressively trying to eliminate medical mistakes.