The Quaid Twin Medical Error
November, 1999 brought about a release of a report prepared by the prestigious National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) making medical mistakes and their magnitude of the risks to patients receiving hospital care to common public knowledge. The IOM concluded that between 44,000-98,000 deaths occur annually because of medical errors. Among a general agreement was that system deficiencies were the most important factor in the problem and not incompetent or negligent physicians and other caregivers (Sultz & Young, 2010). An excellent example of a system deficiency that leads to a crisis and sentinel event was the highly publicized overdose of Heparin to Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins in 2007.
The newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid were among three patients accidentally given an adult dosage of Heparin, a blood thinner, from a vial containing 10,000 units per milliliter instead of the prescribed 10 units per milliliter. The patients were receiving intravenous inception of the heparin to flush the catheters and to prevent clotting. Cedars-Sinai’s CMO could basically do nothing more than offer his sincerest apologies; yet, ultimately a huge settlement was made for this sentinel event. As noted by experts, “Heparin is a good drug, but you have to pay very careful attention because of the varying concentrations” (Fox News, 2007).
Now Quaid has become the self-described "front man" for a campaign to improve patient care with the implementation of "safe practices" as simple as hand washing and the use of technologies such as bar codes to match medications to patients. After the overdose that nearly killed his twins, Quaid said, Cedars-Sinai "stepped up to the plate and spent millions of dollars on bedside bar codes." And he and his wife, Kimberly, created the Quaid Foundation, which has merged with the Texas Medical