Aug. 24, 2008
Dennis Quaid Recounts Twins' Drug Ordeal
Actor Tells 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft Medical Errors Kill Thousands
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Play CBS Video Video The Wrong Medicine Dennis Quaid's newborn twins nearly died when they were mistakenly given a drug overdose. The actor and his wife share their story to draw attention to hospital mistakes that kill as many as 100,000 Americans a year. Steve Kroft reports.
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Dennis Quaid (CBS)
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"We were met at the door by our pediatrician, the nurse - head nurse that was on duty," Dennis Quaid recalls.
"Risk management," his wife adds.
"Risk management, which is basically the liability division of a hospital, which is lawyers," he explains.
Inside the room, the Quaids found their babies bruised and bleeding from all the puncture wounds, where blood had been drawn or where they had received injections.
"They were working on Boone, whose belly button would not stop bleeding. And while they were trying to clamp it, blood squirted across the room, about six feet and landed on the wall. It was blood everywhere," Dennis Quaid says.
"They weren't just given one massive overdose, they were given two massive overdoses?" Kroft asks.
"Two massive overdoses, a thousand times what they should have over an eight-hour period that we know of," Quaid says.
Asked how serious the situation was, Quaid tells Kroft, "It was a life-and-death situation."
"And all of it because of mistakes?" Kroft asks.
"Yeah. It was avoidable, completely avoidable," he says.
And to make matters worse the same avoidable mistake had occurred a year earlier at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Six infants were given multiple adult doses of Heparin instead of the pediatric version; three of the infants survived, three did not.
Asked when he found out about the Indianapolis incident, Quaid says, "In the morning when I had gone in, a pediatrician told me about it."
"He said, 'This has happened before'?" Kroft asks.
"Yeah. He had told me about that three babies died. And it sent a chill down my spine," Quaid remembers.
The Quaids say the crisis went on for 41 hours, as doctors and nurses administered an antidote to Heparin, which helps the blood coagulate. Slowly the twins began to stabilize, and after 12 long days in the hospital, they were allowed to come home.
When 60 Minutes saw them last winter at the Quaids' house in Pacific Palisades, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace were almost four months old. Both have undergone extensive medical tests and they seem to have come through the ordeal with no signs of permanent damage.
But the experiences changed Dennis Quaid. He's spent much of the past nine months trying to dissect what happened and figuring out ways to draw attention to what is one of the leading causes of death in America - preventable human medical error.
"These mistakes that occurred to us are not unique. And they're not unique even to Cedars. They happen in every hospital, in every state in this country. And 100,000 people, that I've come to find out, there's 100,000 people a year are killed every year in hospitals by a medical mistakes," he says.
Produced by Ira Rosen
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See all 246 Commentstwins and hospital mistakes, that cost so many lives.
It is a real problem that is like the elephant no one
acknowleges and no one is accoutable for.
The medical community in my small town murdered my
son because he had a disability and they withheld
treatment that could have saved his life, and
chose not to. They are getting away with it because
I cannot find a lawyer who will take the case, first
they agree to take the case and then they say they
can''t and withdraw. Now the two years is up and they
got away with it. Rae a Reed 435 755 0915 I would like someone to do a story about how the most helpless people the disables are treated by the medical community.
in this country.
This is one of the most arrogant comments I have ever heard from a notoriously arrogant lot of people...actors. Of course, this is why you, 60 minutes, gave him center stage in the first place and let him make such a statement. Need I remind you that we are the ones in the trenches every day, working under circumatances you don''t ''get'' unless you do it. In spite of our best efforts, we make mistakes... because every move, every hurried calculation and decision can become one as in any other job, only ours can be fatal. We get that. We lose sleep over it. He gets to ''retake'' and ''remake'' his day at will. We are educated enough to know how easy it is to screw up. Yet, we are brave enough to get up and give it another day. Would he? To suggest we cover up for one another is disgusting to me. Shame on all of you. Walk in my shoes for the 15 years I have done it, work holiday''s weekends, days and nights then we''ll talk because only then will you be qualified to judge the likes of us.
Your viewers should know there is a way to solve and prevent medication errors through technology called barcode point-of-care (BPOC) medication safety solutions. These are wireless, hand-held devices which scan barcodes on medications and patient wristbands at bedside to make sure medications are given accurately. The devices can even check for allergy and drug interactions as well as documenting important information about whether pain medications are working.
Mr. Quaid was correct -- let%u2019s not wait for another fatal medication error to occur %u2013 consumers should be asking their hospitals before checking in if they have bar-code point-of-care medication safety technology as part of the criteria in determining which facility to get care from %u2013 just like picking your primary care physician %u2013 you need to investigate whether your hospital uses handheld, bar-code technology.
IntelliDOT Corporation
San Diego, California
*Medication Errors Observed in 36 Health Care Facilities by Kenneth N. Barker, PhD; Elizabeth A. Flynn, PhD; Gientte A. Pepper, PhD; David W. Bates, MD, MSc; Robert L. Mikeal, PhD.
I also believe that the medicine should have been recalled in addition to the nurses and rest of the staff being more careful.
I have worked in the quality and risk management arena of hospitals and have also been on the receiving end of having major surgeries six times in my life. Just prior to the last one, I asked them about the drugs they were getting ready to use during my surgery - I was deathly allergic to one that is commonly used for irrigation - she thanked me for asking as that drug was in the mix. That would have been an error on their part as it was written all over my records! I would not have hesitated to call JCAHO. Life is too short as it is.
I also believe that the medicine should have been recalled in addition to the nurses and rest of the staff being more careful.
I have worked in the quality and risk management arena of hospitals and have also been on the receiving end of having major surgeries six times in my life. Just prior to the last one, I asked them about the drugs they were getting ready to use during my surgery - I was deathly allergic to one that is commonly used for irrigation - she thanked me for asking as that drug was in the mix. That would have been an error on their part as it was written all over my records! I would not have hesitated to call JCAHO. Life is too short as it is.
Idaho RN
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