Personal Injury Law

Dennis Quaid Files Lawsuit Over Drug Mix-up

By Jane Akre

Quaid v. Baxter Again

Actor Dennis Quaid has filed a lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare Corp. for a drug mix-up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2007 that nearly killed his newborn twins.

The 10-da- 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.

The anticoagulants are both 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 babies began bleeding out, suffered internal injuries and shock, but appear to have recovered. The complaints filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court says the extent of long-term injuries will not be known for years.

The Quaids sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and reportedly signed off on $750,000 settlement with the hospital which did not admit any wrongdoing.

The twins' overdose is just one of the estimated 100,000 fatalities stemming from medical errors that occur every year in American hospitals and from pharmaceuticals.

Federal Preemption

Baxter Healthcare Corporation had tried to have the lawsuit thrown out of court under federal preemption, which offers blanket immunity to drug and device makers citing approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Quaid appeared both on '60 Minutes' and before Congress to testify about dangerous drug errors and the rights of Americans to seek justice in a courtroom.

'My family blessedly survived a huge drug error, triggered by the misconduct of a drug manufacturer. Others are not so fortunate. If they are denied access to our courts, they will have no compensation for their injuries, and society will lose one of the most effective incentives for safer drugs.'

Quaid and his wife Kimberly had filed a lawsuit against Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter which was dismissed in 2008 on jurisdictional grounds as the drug mix-up occurred in California. #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on May 26, 2010 (boomark / email).