Selasa, 04 Desember 2007

Dennis Quaid and wife sue drug maker (AP)





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.

 
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