Pleasant Law Blog (Insurance Claims, Medical Misakes, and Nursing Home Claims)

Heparin Drug Overdoses In Hospitals: Dennis Quaid Testifies Before Congress

Actor Dennis Quaid has been in the news a lot lately, after he and his wife almost lost their two twin children to a gross medical mistake. The hospital gave the twins extreme overdose of a drug known as Heparin, a blood thinner. Apparently, the dose given to each was the adult dose, and equated to something like 10,000 times the correct dose for an infant. Miraculously, the twins' near wrongful death was averted, despite what seemed to be clear medical malpractice. As a result of this experience, Quaid understandably became interested in just how a medical/drug error like this could have occurred. He began studying the problem of preventable medical errors/mistakes. In a recent episode of CBS' "60 Minutes," Quaid cited statistics indicating that as many as 100,000 people are killed each year as a result of preventable medical negligence, more than are killed by automobile accidents and a host of other causes of death. We tend to take for granted the danger involved in taking to the roads in our automobiles, accepting the risk of serious injury or death from an auto accident; but the public seems to be unaware about the extent to which medical malpractice takes lives each year. While this incident did not happen to Quaid in North Carolina, it could just as easily have happened to him in North Carolina. Just because a hospital or doctor is in a larger North Carolina city like Raleigh, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Greensboro or Winston-Salem; it doesn't mean medical mistakes won't happen or aren't common. The link provided is to video of Dennis Quaid's recent testimony to Congress on this issue. Obviously, he has become an impassioned advocate working for change in preventing medical mistakes by doctors, hospitals, nurses, and other healthcare providers.