LOS ANGELES - Dennis Quaid and his wife sued the makers of heparin
Tuesday after their newborn twins were inadvertently given massive
doses of the blood thinner at a hospital.
The product liability lawsuit, filed in Chicago, seeks more than
$50,000 in damages. It claims that Baxter Healthcare Corp., based in
Deerfield, Ill., was negligent in packaging different doses of the
product in similar vials with blue backgrounds. The lawsuit also says
the company should have recalled the large-dosage vials after
overdoses killed three children at an Indianapolis hospital last
year.
The lawsuit was first reported by CelebTV.com, which obtained the
court documents.
The company had not been served with the lawsuit and could not
comment specifically on it, spokeswoman Deborah Spak said.
However, "this is not a product issue. The issue here is about
improper use of a product," she said.
"While we strive to clearly differentiate our products and dosages,
no amount of differentiation will replace the value of clinicians
carefully reviewing and reading a drug name and dose before
dispensing and administering it," she added.
This fall, the company changed its heparin packaging by adding a red
caution label that must be torn off before the vial can be opened.
The Quaids' children, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, and a third
patient were at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Nov. 18 when they were
mistakenly given vials of heparin that were 1,000 times stronger than
the usual dosage.
The twins were home Tuesday and "appear to be doing well," said
Susan E. Loggans, the Chicago attorney who filed the lawsuit. "The
Quaids are a religious family, and they really believe the prayers of
the public saved their kids."
"Apparently, they're going to be fine now," she said but declined to
otherwise comment on the children's medical conditions.
"The point of this case is to save other children from this fate.
They're not looking for money," Loggans said of the lawsuit.
The Quaids didn't sue Cedars-Sinai, which acknowledged after the
news broke that a "preventable error" had resulted in three patients
receiving vials containing 10,000 units per milliliter of heparin
instead of vials with a concentration of 10 units per milliliter.
The patients were receiving intravenous medications and the heparin
was used to flush the catheters to prevent clotting.
Two of the patients needed a drug that reverses the effects of
heparin, the hospital said at the time.
The hospital issued an apology to the patients' families, and said
it would take "all steps" to prevent a recurrence.
The heparin was "unreasonably dangerous" as it was packaged and sold
because both the small and large dosage vials had labels with blue
backgrounds when the vials "should have been completely
distinguishable (by) size and shape," the lawsuit argued.
A similar dosage error killed three premature infants at an
Indianapolis hospital last year. Three others survived overdoses.
In February, Baxter Healthcare Corp. sent a letter warning health
care workers to carefully read labels on the heparin packages to
avoid a mix-up.
But the lawsuit by Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, argues that the
company didn't do enough.
The company failed to recall the large-dosage vials after the
infant deaths and repackage the drug, the lawsuit contends.
It said the manufacturer also should have issued an "urgent"
warning to health care providers that required them to educate nurses
and others about the problems and implement safety procedures.