Hospital Error Nearly Kills Dennis Quaid's Newborn Twins

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

20 Nov 2007 09:20 PM

It's a parent's worst nightmare... and Dennis Quaid and his wife are smack in the middle of it.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Quaid and his wife Kimberly welcomed twins into the world on November 8th. However, the joyous moment is now being eclipsed by a horrific incident. Quaid's son Thomas Boone and daughter Zoe Grace were accidentally given a major dose of the blood thinner heparin during their stay at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

According to news reports, the babies are currently in stable condition in the neo-natal intensive care unit at the hospital where they have been given a drug to reverse the effects of heparin.

In a statement released to the media, a representative from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center called the mix up a "preventable error." An unnamed source told TMZ.com that a medical technician placed the heparin in the wrong storage area and a nurse administered it without verifying the dosage. Hospital administrators confirm, "a number of patients' IV catheters were flushed with heparin from vials containing a concentration of 10,000 units per milliliter instead of from vials containing a concentration of 10 units per milliliter."

The drug is commonly used to keep IV catheters from clotting, but in the case of Quaid's twins they received a near fatal dose and began to "bleed out."

Can you imagine? What a horrendous situation for Quaid and family. First, he and his wife endure the struggles of conceiving a child. Then, they get to a point where they employ the help of a gestational carrier - a woman who carries another couple's baby conceived by the parents' own egg and sperm. Finally, the babies are born, but instead of celebrating a happy homecoming they will likely spend their Thanksgiving in the intensive care unit of a hospital. A hospital. You'd think that would the one place in the world where your child's health would never be compromised.

For their part hospital administrators issued a public apology for what they called "a failure to follow our standard policies and procedures." They also confirmed that Quaid's twins were not the only patients affected by the error.

Talk about a PR nightmare.

Of course, the hospital's nightmare doesn't compare to what the affected patients and their families are going through.

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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