Dennis Quaid: Medical Errors Nearly Killed My Twins

By PopEater Staff Posted Apr 15th 2010 06:10AM

Dennis Quaid is finally revealing that his newborn twins nearly died after a medical error at a Los Angeles hospital. In 2007, while they were at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Thomas and Zoe Quaid were accidentally given an overdose of the blood thinner heparin, Quaid said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

"There were 41 hours where their lives were in the balance." He said it was the most frightening day of his life and left him and his wife, Kimberly, in "shock, anger and confusion."

After doing some research, Quaid realized this problem was widespread and decided to raise awareness. Even many health care leaders are not aware of how big the problem is, he claims.

He added, "This is a preventable error." At the time, Quaid and his wife had agreed to a $500,000 settlement with the hospital.

Quaid has produced a documentary about medical mistakes called 'Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Heathcare Harm,' which will air on the Discovery Channel April 24."If you hit them in the heart, it sets the hands to work," he said.

Quaid said his twins have "apparently no ill effects" from their ordeal. "We were really lucky to have a happy ending," he said.

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Tags: Dennis Quaid

Comments

(31)

Thursday 15 April

By Elba

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No - it was a nurse who caused the problem - you lefties need to get off this 'let's get the doctors' kick before we dont have any left. A doctor writes a correct order and the nurse who is responsible for following the order gives the wrong dosage - that is her or his fault NOT the doctor or hospital they SAVED your kids. But nurses dont have big malpractice policies so I guess if you want 500,000 you cant sue the nurse. Next time you get chest pain Dennis go call your lawyer

By mel

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why is this new news?? they went on every talk show a year ago, telling this story.

By Taylor

Doctors do write the wrong orders sometimes. Like you said nurses "follow orders"

By Mark

It's "new" news because the Quaids need to talk about something else to distract from their legal problems, most likely...

Whoops...I think it's the wrong Quaid for that...well, maybe he's trying to avoid questions about his brother?

By Angela

Elba you're an IDIOT! You are quick to blame the "nurse" and say the DOCTORS and HOSPITAL are the ones who saved their kids. Get it straight....THE DOCTORS AND NURSES saved those kids. And if you actually knew the entire story, you wouldn't have blamed just the nurse. The bottles of heparin were manufactured with the almost exact same color tops on the bottles. This is a medication error that happens when manufacturers aren't careful when trying to differentiate their products. This is a huge problem the Quaid's are fighting for against manufacturers.

Next time you want to place blame on only nurses, be careful the next time you are a patient. I hope your DOCTOR will be able to take care of you because you don't deserve the heart and kindness a nurse can give.

By scrunch42578

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You try questioning a docs orders! They get pretty defensive about things and tell you they know what they are doing and you will follow orders. The best thing you can do is refuse to give the meds and tell the doc to administer himself! You do have that right because its your license in question!

By almmj

you are wrong. Negligent Entrustment. It is the doctor and hospital's responsibility to make sure their nursing staff if properly trained and knows HOW to follow directions. The hospital should have known that this problem with the heparin was widespread and had a meeting with all staff about the dangers of overdosing. Again, Negligent entrustment. The hospital and doctor at fault since the nurse represents the doctor and hospital.

By Marlene

I agree with every one who is asking WHY IS THIS NEWS!!

By jjlacrosse8

Hello Elba, actually Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists, and people in general make mistakes. After having shoulder surgery, I was given a prescription by the Doctor for 30mg of Ambien. If you are aware of different meds, you may have caught that right away. Needless to say after falling asleep while talking to my wife, and then attempting to "shut off" the wall (apparently an imaginary light that only I could see) My wife called in to the dial a nurse at the local hospital to see what was going on. Turns out, the correct dosage should not exceed 10mg, and being I was a first time user, it should have been 5mg. My wife was instructed by a very on the ball nurse to get me in right away to have my stomach pumped. That Nurse saved my life, that the Doctor and Pharmacist nearly ended.

By yellowbird84

When a med error occurs, it is considered a system failure. You can't put the blame on just one person. Med errors occur everyday, but hospitals, doctors and nurses are doing their best to prevent them. Unfortunately, they still happen as we are human.

By ccp

As I recall in this case it was a stocking issue and the twins were two of several given the wrong dosage

You can be mad all you want Angela but the facts in this case were well and accurately reported. A doctor wrote the correct dosage of Heparin. The nurse gave the wrong dosage. The bottles may have been labeled in a confusing way so that the nurse's error was an "honest error" but that was the source of the error. It is interesting that the first headline that used the word 'doctors' has changed in a matter of hours. When a doctor makes a mistake it is 'malpractice' - when anyone else in the system makes a mistake it's 'medical error' or 'system failure'.

By mark

Just wondering with all the money you Doctors make,why you can't give the medicine yourself? Is that too beneath you and your 6 figure salary cronies?

By anthony

I am glad his children made it. Life is so delicate. It is already hard for twins as they are usually delivered early. I know his action will prevent this from occuring again I applaud his efforts to make the hospital live up to it's responsibility

By GOULIGO

Although the children were given the wrong dose NOT A SINGLE PHYSICAL PROBLEM OCCURED. The children were in NO danger as heparin can be reversed easily with protamine and heparin has a short half life. It was a NURSE error but nurses are human. Ask yourself... have you EVER made a mistake in your job. Even Tiger woods misses the putts.

By Annie

Are you really serious??? The Dennis Quaid story is very very very old news. Looks like you guys must be running out of stories

By Paul

if you would read the whole article you would see that his special on this problem is airing soon on discovery channel that's why they are running this piece again.

By Cindy

Thanks Paul! I was just going to write that, until I read what you wrote. I guess people do not read. So what, if it was a year ago when it actually happened to his twins. Is there a time limit? He can continue to improve the system and make others aware as much and as long as he wants as far as I am concerned. He has that right! His twins could have died. Maybe, since he is a celebrity, something will be done about this for future patients. Look at the good side, and don't be negative!

By joe

well, mark, it is a division of tasks, that is why the doctor doesn't give the meds. and for the record, do you even know how much a doctor actually makes? I mean once he pays back his student loans for the 11 plus years of education. Get some accurate info before slamming a profession. Sorry, but this one WAS a nursing error.

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