Hospital: Twins' Deaths Not From Heparin

Teen Parents Granted Court Order To Preserve Records Related To The Babies' Treatment

(CBS/AP)  The parents of twin infants who died this week at a Corpus Christi hospital where a pharmacy incorrectly mixed up doses of a common blood thinner were just teens themselves, excited about the birth of their son and daughter.

But 10 days after celebrating their childrens' births, Erika Garcia and her husband, Eric, were planning their funerals.

The hospital said its doctors have found no direct link between the overdoses and the deaths of Keith and Kaylynn Garcia's deaths. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported in its online edition Thursday night that a doctor told the Nueces County medical examiner that Keith Garcia died of septic infection and complications of prematurity.

Nurses at Christus Spohn Hospital South discovered Sunday night that several infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit received heparin overdoses. The hospital later confirmed that 14 infants received the overdose and three others may have just before their release, though follow up with those infants showed no ill effects.

Heparin is an anti-clotting drug used to flush intravenous lines.

"Generally, the way that you find out about Heparin being too high is that you notice that when you do blood tests or when you start IV's, they continue to bleed at the IV site," explained Dr. William Burgin of the Nueces Co. Health Authority.

"Christus Spohn (Health System) confirms that an error occurred during the mixing process in our hospital pharmacy," Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Davis said in a prepared statement. "The error was unrelated to product labeling or packaging."

Erika Garcia, 16, was a loving mother to their 1-year-old daughter and was excited about the birth of their twins, Garcia's grandmother Maria Luisa Hernandez told the Caller-Times.

"We weren't supposed to lose those babies," Hernandez said. "It's just not right."

Hernandez said each infant weighed about four pounds at birth but doctors told the family their lungs were too small, leaving them short of breath.

Erika and Eric Garcia had dated before marrying a couple months ago, Hernandez said. Eric, 18, works at a meat market in Alice and they had moved into a small mobile home.

The invitations for a baby shower had already gone out, Hernandez said.

Hector and Magdalena Chapa, two of the infants' grandparents, are scheduled to speak about the incident Friday morning in Corpus Christi.

"I just want resolution," Hector Chapa told CBS News Early Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez, "I want to know what happened and why it even happened."

The hospital announced earlier this week that two pharmacy employees had taken voluntary leave while the investigation proceeded. It was not immediately clear what, if anything, Thursday's confirmation meant for those employees.

Keith Garcia died Tuesday at the hospital and his sister Kaylynn died Wednesday.

They were born one month premature July 1 at Christus Spohn Hospital in Alice and transferred for higher-level care to Christus Spohn Hospital South in Corpus Christi.

The babies' parents requested and received a judge's order late Wednesday preventing the hospital from destroying any records related to the babies' hospital stay or the heparin overdose.

In an interview on the CBS News Early Show Bob Patterson, the attorney for the Garcia family, told Rodriguez that the court order requires the hospital to preserve all the evidence, records, samples and the actual heparin bottles.

"Eventually we'll get a chance to have independent experts take a look at all of that," Patterson said.

Hospital officials said Thursday that autopsies are being conducted on both of the Garcia infants and the Texas Department of State Health Services is conducting a review.

In November 2007, actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins were at the center of a near-fatal drug mix-up in which they were administered 1,000 times the normal dose of Heparin.

"We all have this inherent thing that we trust doctors and nurses, that they know what they're doing. But this mistake occurred right under our noses, that the nurse didn't bother to look at the dosage on the bottle," Quaid told 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft in a March interview. "It was 10 units that our kids are supposed to get. They got 10,000. And what it did is, it basically turned their blood to the consistency of water, where they had a complete inability to clot. And they were basically bleeding out at that point."

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Read The 60 Minutes Interview With Dennis And Kimberly Quaid

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Quaid's children recovered, and he has since testified before Congress in an effort 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," he told Kroft.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."

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.

During the past 18 months, there have been roughly 250 medical errors nationwide involving heparin and children a year or younger, according to U.S. Pharmacopeia, the public standards-setting authority for all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, dietary supplements and other health-care products manufactured and sold in the United States.

[barbaraf4]

I''m not sure the hospital in which the twins died should be conducting the autopsy. My vote is for an outside group, maybe in Austin, to perform the autopsies. The hospital has a lot at stake here.

[psk123-2009]

I have to agree with barbaraf4 on that. What hospital would admit to making a fatal mistake when they can claim otherwise?

....a doctor told the Nueces County medical examiner that Keith Garcia died of septic infection and complications of prematurity.
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My inference from this is that a doctor, at the hospital involved in the death of the infants, gave the medical examiner a cause of death that had the effect of absolving the hospital of liability in that death. Perhaps CROW served in the hospital cafeteria should be avoided until we determine whether the hospital assumes any liability for its menu.

[mimi552]

Are you kidding me!!!! They died from complications of premature birth!!!! Both of them! I had twins 8 years ago - 6 weeks early and both weighing a little over 4 pounds each. This is 2008! Hospitals know how to take care of premature babies. Babies survive that are 8, 10 weeks early and who are much, much smaller. And to note in the article that the parents are just teenagers - who cares! They don''t deserve to have their babies die.

The hospital made a mistake and I hope and pray that an attorney picks up this case and sue them for a gazillion dollars!

[kittykatty2]

If both of the babies were "about 4lbs" then they definitely weren''t too premature. Someone or some ones at the hospital are LYING.

[mkbjon]

These kids need to get an independent autopsy done PRONTO! I don''t buy that BOTH babies died from being born prematurely. Someone made a huge mistake and now they are trying to cover it up. I sincerely hope that the family does not let this hospital get away with causing the deaths of their precious newborns.

[toldyouso12]

"The hospital said its doctors have found no direct link between the overdoses and the deaths of Keith and Kaylynn Garcia''s deaths. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported in its online edition Thursday night that a doctor told the Nueces County medical examiner that Keith Garcia died of septic infection and complications of prematurity."

Well--of course the HOSPITAL Doctors found no link--if they had, it would be a slam dunk for millions in a lawsuit--which it still is--because the Heparin certainly did not contribute to the health of the children, and if one or both died of septicemia, that is tantamount to negligence.

To die due to being septic, one has to NOT get the appropriate antibiotics to contain bacteria. To not get those drugs while in a hospital setting means that the infection was introduced or exacerbated by the hospital care and that someone did not notice the effects until it was too late.

Hopefully, even in this grieving time, the family has a good and knowledgeable lawyer, to help them in this case. Millions will not bring back a dead child--but it should certainly occur since many people have no sense of duty or responsibility, unless they are hit in the pocketbook.

[g1g1g1t]

I believe the autopsy was done in another hospital. the mother of the twins had an the infection and passed on to the babies. when the babies were born the already had complications and that was the reason for the tranfer so that they can try to have some chance of survival. you can find all this information at the kiii tv3 website.

[democrat122]

Sepsis caused by Group B Strep (by far the most common cause in the neonate) comes from the mother and has a mortality rate in the 20-50% range even in ideal conditions, with degree of prematurity (and hence low birth weight) being one of the most important indicators of a poor outcome. This is what these children had, as reported by the local news. The potential role of a heparin dosing mistake in the deaths can only be assessed my a medical examiner, who would likely find obvious signs of massive internal bleeding if this were the case.
It saddens me that, according to this board, many people still feel that lawsuits for millions of dollars are the answer to medical errors. It seems quite logical to me that taking millions from a medical center (like this one or the one in Manhatten where the lady died in the waiting room the other day), when they are already chronically understaffed and underfunded, will clearly result in further understaffing/problems due to their having even less money to help patients. Therefore, any such lawsuit for millions directly causes harm to future patients, which in my book makes them the height of selfishness - directly and intentionally harming one''s fellow man for financial gain.