$25,000 fine for hospital after Quaid twins' accidental OD
$25,000 fine for hospital which gave overdose to twins of actor Dennis Quaid
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Saturday, 22, Mar 2008 10:29
The hospital which gave an overdose of blood thinner to three children, including the twins of actor Dennis Quaid, has been fined $25,000 (£12,600).
The Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles - along with ten other hospitals - has been punished for violations which caused or were "likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients," according to the Associated Press news agency.
Inner Space star Quaid's twins, 12-day-old Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were being treated intravenously at Cedars-Sinai in November when their IV catheters were mistakenly flushed with a 10,000-unit solution of anticlotting drug Heparin, rather than the recommended ten-unit dose.
The newborns were reportedly admitted to intensive care after starting to "bleed out" as their blood's ability to clot was undermined.
The twins were born via a surrogate mother on November 8th in Santa Monica, but the 53-year-old and his wife of three and a half years, Kimberly Buffington, have been raising the children.
The actor and his wife have since launched a lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare Corp, the manufacturers of Heparin, claiming the company is negligent for packaging different doses of the product in similar blue vials.
Speaking on the US show 60 minutes last Sunday, Quaid said that at the time of the accidental overdose, "our kids are bleeding from everyplace that they've punctured".
"They were working on Boone, whose belly button would not stop bleeding – blood squirted across the room. It was blood everywhere. It was a life-and-death situation," he explained.
Quaid also has a 15-year-old son, Jack Henry, with ex-wife Meg Ryan.
Quaid can currently be seen on UK screens in assassination thriller Vantage Point.