Dennis Quaid Sues Drug Company Over His Newborn Twins

AP:

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 at least $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 and failing to recall them after three Indianapolis infants died from overdoses last year.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[TJS]

Sue the guy with the deepest pockets (the drug maker), NOT the guy who screwed up (the hospital). That's the American way. The only certainty in this case is that Mr. Quaid's lawyers will make money on the deal.

[pattyh]

My daughter is a nurse and triple checks the dosage anytime she has to administer Heparin. She has said for years that the different dosages need to be color coded. It's a simple solution for a deadly mistake that will happen again until it's corrected.

[oldtree]

Heparin has been used for many years to treat conditions that are fatal without it's use. It is a blood thinning agent that allows surgery that otherwise couldn't be done. Until we have more advanced means of surgical procedure, it is one of the most important drugs used in acute situations.
why would you knowingly sue a company for a product's misuse by a doctor? this is really irresponsible

[UtahLiberal435]

I'd happily kick the crap out of drug companies for a host of reasons, but this was careless hospital staffers flushing out catheters (not administering dosages) using way-too-high concentrations of blood-thinning Heparin (the exact same ingredient in most rat poisons).

Sorry. Valid lawsuit, but mis-targeted. Heparin, used properly, saves a ton of heart attack, stroke, and congestive heart failure victims.

But it sounds as if the lawsuit is just a shot-across-the-bow to change packaging anyway, not some entrepreneurial lawsuit aimed at conveniently 'big pockets'. Fat chance the media would hype that angle tho.

[pennyfortheguy]

This is how Lenny Bruce wrecked his career.

[loki]

I hope he gets billions. The drug companies do things like this all the time and usually nothing happens. At least he has the finances to fight them. And Im sure he has the conviction to stay with it due to the lose of his daughters. I know I would spend my last dollar trying if it was my daughters. I hope he kicks there political buying asses and closes the whole company down forever.
Then maybe the other companies will actually take notice and clean up their act.
We know when there is a out of court settlement the company never admits guilt, and never changes. Maybe if they knew they actual would be held accountable with the whole business, they would do the right thing, not just the most profitable thing.

[lisakaz]

I hope everyone who contributed to this fiasco pays and I don't get why some here would wanna protect a drug company who was warned in the past and could have made the incident much easier by having various doses carry clearly different colored labels. What, they couldn't pay a few extra cents to produce more colors? Tell that to people with dead or disabled kids from this. Culpability isn't all on one head here. I hope the Quaids get what they are seeking.

[susie1776]

Excuuuuse ME! He should be suing the hospital for not having in place the most basic precautions for misdosing that most hospitals have had in place for YEARS! Any JCAHO accredited hospital has been required to separate drugs of different dilution. I'm a nurse and my hospital did that YEARS ago to prevent exactly this kind of mistake. We NEVER put two dosages of the same drug anywhere near each other. It's one of the medication safety precautions that JCAHO specifically looks for. Shame on Cedars Sinai. I thought better of them. JCAHO and the State of CA should be in there going over their medication practices with a fine tooth comb. This was TOTALLY preventable!!!

[Mort]

Isn't this kind of like suing the gun maker instead of the idiot that pulled the trigger?

[bluevalentine]

Get em! This lawsuit is just. Even with double checks, the drug compaanies are the start of that chain of safety, and should take that responsibility seriously. The Quaids are only seeking around $50,000. They don't need the money, and so I see this more as a check of the system. A slap on the wrist of the drug company. They should be thrilled that the lawsit isn't seeking far more, and therefore should quickly pay lol. The Quaids are being more than fair.

[Wrong2bRight]

They should also sue all pharmacists who compound drugs because they use the same bottle and capsules for most if not all of their drugs.

[TXfemmom]

Look, I am a medical professional, and the drug companies should put meds of differing doses in different colored packaging.

However, in the end, it is the HOSPITAL and the pharmacy technician, the supervising pharmacist, and the nurse who administered it, who are to blame. There have been incidents such as this time over time, and yet the HOSPITALS DIDN'T SEE TO IT THAT THE COMPANIES CHANGED THE PACKAGING. ONE WORD FROM THE HOSPITALS ABOUT SWITCHING BRANDS AND THEY WOULD HAVE CHANGED IT, BELIEVE ME.

As for not packaging large doses, there are instances, such as in open heart cases WHERE LARGE DOSES ARE ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE, so not having it available is out of the question.

[ming099]

.....Dennis....ya got class......SUE the bastards that perpetrated this....and try not to blame the often overworked and UNDERPAID humans who work at the hospital...

[deckard70]

Kudos to the Quaids for bringing a sensible lawsuit to the drug company, and for not including the hospital staff. When hospitals are sued, the individuals who work there are liable, personally. The Quaids could easily have chosen to destroy the lives of the nurse or doctor who picked up the wrong vial, but instead they have gone to the heart of the matter and want the packaging that fooled the nurse or doctor to be changed. That is a truly noble and decent act.

[rbspickles]

I'm glad the babies are OK.