Dennis Quaid Suing Over Drug Mix-Up That Nearly Killed His Twins, Again

You may remember that Dennis Quaid's newborn twins nearly died in the hospital after they were given the wrong dose of a medication. They have sued once for that mix-up.  He and his wife Kimberly are suing again.

The 10 day old twins were in the hospital to treat a staph infection in 2007 when they received 10,000 units of Heparin rather than 10 units of the lower dose Hep-Lock. Both medications are made by Baxter and are in similar vials with blue background labels.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the twins, Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone, states that Baxter Healthcare should have recalled the vials of Heparin and corrected the labels because the company knew other infants had died from a similar medication error. The company was obligated to warn health care practitioners about the previous medication errors, according to the complaint.

The twins became gravely ill, began bleeding out, suffered internal injuries and shock, but appear to have recovered.  The complaint states that the twins long term injuries may not be known for years.

The Quaids previously sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and settled for $750,000. The hospital did not admit any wrongdoing.  They also had filed a lawsuit against Deerfield, Illinois based Baxter in Illinois which was dismissed in 2008 on jurisdictional grounds as the drug mix-up occurred in California.  This time they filed suit in California. 

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Comments

[Lauren]

So the question is, are they suing (again) because they don't feel the hospital and drug manufacturer have done enough to prevent this from happening again or do they want more money?

If they want more money, is it because their twins have medical problems as a result of the error and $750K won't cover their expenses, or because they want to take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain?

[heidi]

My guess would be they're suing because they want to punish the company. I don't know all the details of this case, but if Baxter did know about other deaths and wasn't open about it, or trying to do something to stop that then I'm Team Quaid. Baxter has got some hurt coming.

[Fawn Amber]

Also, I'm pretty sure they donated that money to...someone. They didn't keep it.

This is all about punishment. And I'd do exactly the same thing.

[DianaCLT]

Dennis Quaid has been very vocal about making sure this never happens again. IMO, this isn't about personal gain. He's had a long and lucrative career - he doesn't need the money. Baxter SHOULD pay (again, IMO). Why the hell would a drug company make labels, with such hugely different dosages, look the same? Of course this was going to happen. Yes - the person at Cedars that administered the drug was at fault for not noticing the strength of the medication, but it would have never happened if Baxter had made clear and proper (and different-colored!) labels.

[Shannon]

Yeah, I'm on Team Quaid here as well. I don't really think it's about the money -- it's about making this drug company take responsibility for something it could have prevented.