Dennis Quaid’s twins have made a full recovery after being given an accidental drug overdose.
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Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace – who were born via a surrogate mother on 8 November to Dennis and his wife Kimberly – have been discharged from Los Angeles’ Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where they were hospitalised on 20 November two days after being given 10,000 units of the anti-coagulant drug Heparin – which stops the blood from clotting.
Babies are only allowed to have 10 units, and the unintentional overdose left the twins fighting for their lives. The Quaid’s lawyer Susan E. Loggans said: “The twins are back home. Their condition is fantastic, they’re smiling. Zoe looks like her mom, and Boone looks like his dad.
“They’ve fully recovered from the accident and it’s doubtful they’ll suffer any long-term effects from the overdose. The Quaids are very religious, and they believe their children’s recovery is a real miracle.”
Dennis and Kimberly are now suing Baxter Healthcare Corporation, the manufacturer of Heparin, for failing to label vials of the drug properly.
Court documents filed in Cook County, Illinois, yesterday (04.12.07) state the couple are seeking over USD50,000 in damages. The paper claim the twins “suffered and will continue to suffer injuries”, while the family suffered invasion of privacy as a result of the accident.
Loggans said: “On a negligence scale of one to 10, Baxter Corporation gets a 10. They knew medication errors due to product labelling resulted in death but failed to recall the drug. Each year there’s 1.5 million medication errors in America – it is a national epidemic.”
Baxter Healthcare Corporation claim they are yet to be served the legal documents.
A spokeswoman for the company, Erin Gardiner, said: “We have not been served with a lawsuit related to this incident, so we cannot comment on the lawsuit itself.
“This is not a product issue, the issue here is improper use of a product. Heparin is one of the most commonly used generic drugs in a hospital setting manufactured by seven companies in standard vials. It plays a vital role in the treatment of thousands of patients everyday when administered and used properly.
“Baxter strives to clearly differentiate products and dosages, but no amount of differentiation will replace the value of clinicians carefully reading and reviewing a drug name and dose.”
It has been revealed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was warned by America’s Food and Drug Association (FDA) of the dangers of mistaking the low and high dose vials of heparin in February.
In the safety alert dated 6 February, 2007, the FDA and Baxter Healthcare Corporation highlighted the dangers of confusing 10 and 10,000 unit vials of the drug, as the labelling is very similar.
