They each received a second dose about eight hours later. The vials contained a concentration of 10,000 units per milliliter instead of the appropriate 10 units per milliliter of the blood thinner, which is used to prevent clots.Ī short time later, the twins received their first dose of the high-concentration heparin to flush their intravenous lines. 18 when two pharmacy technicians mistakenly delivered 100 vials of heparin to the pediatric unit. “So, our kids are actually being overdosed while we’re there,” Dennis Quaid said.Īccording to state regulators, the medical errors began the morning of Nov. The Quaids spent the entire next day at the hospital. The babies were placed in a room in the pediatric unit to receive intravenous antibiotics. 17, their pediatrician told them to take the twins to Cedars-Sinai. But within days, the parents and a nurse noticed that Thomas had an infection around his navel. The twins came home three days after their birth. Although a surrogate carried the babies, the Quaids are the biological parents. 8, at 36 weeks gestation, Thomas and Zoe were born at St. “We’d like to give them a chance to right a wrong.” “We want to see how they respond,” she said.
ANTIDOTE FOR HEPARIN OVERDOS FULL
Loggans, said the hospital was slow to provide full documentation, and her clients have not made a decision about whether to sue Cedars-Sinai. The Quaids have already filed a lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare Corp., one of the manufacturers of heparin, contending that the labeling and design of the product led to the error.īaxter representatives have said the error resulted from improper use, not the drug itself. “We take very seriously any allegations of breaches of patient confidentiality and investigate these in a comprehensive manner,” he said. “We would like to continue to discuss all of these and any other concerns directly with the Quaids to identify and resolve any questions.”Įlbaum did say the hospital is investigating whether there was a violation of the twins’ privacy rights by leaks to the media. “Throughout the course of their children’s hospitalization and continuing today, we have reached out to the Quaids to discuss any concerns or questions they have,” he said. That wasn’t the case.”Ĭedars-Sinai spokesman Richard Elbaum declined to comment on most of the allegations made by the Quaids. “We figured we’d be home in a couple days and nobody would know any different.
“We were told that it was not a big deal,” Kimberly Quaid said. They said they made a deliberate decision not to tell relatives or friends that their children were in the hospital, because they didn’t want to worry them and because they did not want the information to appear in tabloid reports. Their own family members, they said, learned that the babies were in the hospital only after the website TMZ.com broke the news Nov. The Quaids said they believe someone at the hospital leaked information about the error to the news media.
And their anger has only grown since the release last week of a report by state regulators, who found that Cedars-Sinai had placed the Quaid twins and others in immediate jeopardy by its improper handling of medication. The Quaids said they felt betrayed and misled by Cedars-Sinai, one of the nation’s most prestigious hospitals. “Every time you’d move them, the alarms would sound. “They were in incubators with cords attached to them and monitors, and you could barely hold them,” said Kimberly Quaid, 36.
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