LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US actor Dennis Quaid and his wife are suing
the US pharmaceuticals group Baxter after their newborn twins were
given massive overdoses of an anti-clotting agent, a report said
Tuesday.
Babies Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, born by a surrogate mother on
November 8, were given 1,000 times the normal dose of Heparin after
the staff at the Cedars-Sinai Medical center were confused by the
labelling on the drug.
Heparin is used to flush out intravenous tubes and prevent blood
clots. Babies typically receive 10 units of the drug, but Quaids
children were given 10,000 units before the alarm was raised.
Quaids attorney Susan Loggans told TMZ.com that "the twins were
very critical for a while," but the babies seemed to be doing well
and "everything looks good."
Quaid, and his third wife Kimberley Buffington, are suing Baxter
for some 50,000 dollars in compensation to ensure that nothing
similar happened to other children, Loggans added.
The suit alleges that Baxter is liable for the blunder because the
labels on the bottles of 10 units of Heparin and the bottles of
10,000 units are very similar.
As a result of the overdose, the twins "suffered and will continue
to suffer injuries of a pecuniary nature," according to the lawsuit
published on TMZ.
Baxter announced on Monday it was to change its labelling to avoid
any further mix-up, which TMZ reported had already led to the deaths
of three children in Indiana.
Quaid, 53, is best known for roles in a string of hit films during
the 1980s including "The Right Stuff," "Enemy Mine" and "Innerspace."
He also won acclaim for playing Jerry Lee Lewis in 1989s "Great Balls
of Fire!."
Quaids career faltered during the early 1990s as he battled drug
addiction but he still appeared in several successful films
throughout the next decade, most notably "Wyatt Earp" in 1994 and
2000s "Traffic."
More recently he starred in the 2004 disaster movie "The Day After
Tomorrow."
