Dennis Quaid and Medical Malpractice

Dan Frith

Contributor

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Okay...you may ask, "what is the connection between actor Dennis Quaid and medical malpractice?" Good Question and here is the answer...

Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, were blessed last year with the birth of twins, Thomas and Zoe. However, within a few days of coming home, the twins showed signs of a having a staph infection and doctors recommended they be admitted to Cedars-Sinai hospital for routine treatment with intravenous antibiotics. They were supposed to have been given a pediatric blood thinner called Hep-lock to flush out their IV lines and prevent blood clots. But instead, they had been given two doses of Heparin, the adult version of the drug, which is 1,000 times stronger. The twins almost died!

Quaid's story was told in this week's "60 Minutes" program on CBS. The story is frightening and could have resulted in disaster. The twins seem to be doing well now but 3 separate health care professionals failed to do their job...and that failure could have resulted in death.

These stories are not news to us. We have seen medical malpractice cases where the hospital laboratory failed to notify the attending doctor or obstetrical patient that she tested positive for group B strep before discharging mom and an apparently health baby home. That baby died several days later from the infection which could have been easily treated with antibiotics. How about the case where two patients with the same name on the same hospital floor and one patient gets a blood transfusion intended for the other patient.

Scary stuff indeed!