Dennis Quaid: Medical Errors Happen "Too Often"

(CBS)  Actor Dennis Quaid said on "The Early Show" he always felt safe in hospitals. But that's all changed since he and his wife almost lost their newborn twins to medical error.

Thomas and Zoe Quaid were born in 2007. The Quaids were elated. But that joy turned to outrage when a drug mix-up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles caused the twins to be given a massive overdose of the blood thinner Heparin.

In a "60 Minutes" interview with correspondent Steve Croft in 2008, Dennis said, "It was the scariest, most frightening day, I think, either of us have ever been through."

Read: Dennis Quaid Recounts Twins' Drug Ordeal

The newborns were supposed to get a pediatric blood thinner named Hep-lock. Instead, they were given two doses of Heparin, the adult version, that's 1,000 times stronger.

On "60 Minutes," Dennis said, "The nurse didn't bother to look at the dosage on the bottle. It was 10 units that our kids were supposed to get. They got 10,000. What it did was it turned their blood to the consistency of water."

After undergoing extensive medical tests, both children now show no signs of permanent damage.

Quaid said on "The Early Show" Monday his nearly 2-and-a-half year-olds are doing well. "I can hardly keep up with them," he said.

The error, however, has left an impact on him. Since the incident, he's become the celebrity face of patient advocacy.

He told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith, "(Health care mistakes) happen too often in hospitals all over this country."

He added that "health care harm," if hospital-acquired infection is counted, is the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. "The amazing part about it is, it's preventable."

Since the incident with the twins, the Quaids have founded The Quaid Foundation to raise awareness and address the problem of preventable human medical errors. Quaid has testified to Congress on behalf of patients' rights, and Monday, he was to speak at the National Press Club to address the problem of dangerous medical mistakes.

Quaid is also producing a documentary on the subject called "Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm." It will air on the Discovery Channel on April 24.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an estimated 99,000 deaths every year are due to preventable medical errors.

Dr. Charles Denham, chairman of Texas Medical Institute of Technology (TMIT), is one of the experts Quaid met while researching medical errors.

He said on "The Early Show" honest errors can happen. "We don't have bad people. We have bad systems," he said. "And we just haven't caught up with our support systems to the complexity of care that we deliver. So, human error happens all the time, but they're spread over thousands of hospitals. And without these support systems, human error ... can happen."

What what can you do to lower the risk of medical error? Click on the video below for Denham's tips for hospital stays.


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[meanone111]

He is advocating for a good cause, but did you know that he is also suing the drug maker, THREE YEARS after the incident took place? This is a wealthy actor and he is still being greedy over money.

SHAME ON YOU QUAID FOR WASTING THE COURTS TIME WITH THIS STUPID LAWSUIT.

[BSNRNPHN]

A huge part of this problem is understaffing and/or using undereducated Nurses instead of Registered Nurses (RN). In california the RN to patient ratio can vary depending on patient severity to 1:1 or 1:6 plus more depending on how the hospital coerces RN's to take more patients. It's truly a scary feeling being an RN and having to take care of very ill patients and not having the time to really care for them always hoping that "nothing bad happens to them on your shift", and that you do not make a mistake because you are in such a hurry.

I sure hope Dennis Quaid's documentary focuses on this serious part of the medical problem.

[mitch0927]

My sister had cancer and she had the chance to have it removed, but the doctors said that her heart problems could cause her to die on the operating table, so they washed their hands of her and just let her die a horrible and painful death. She could have survived the operation, but to me, if she didn't, at least she would have been under anesthetic at the time and wouldn't have felt the pain she had to endure up until the end. She did not have to go that way, but doctors don't care anymore.

[tsigili]

Americans have the foolish notion, that doctors are some kind of GOD! That simply isn't the case. They just have a pre-diposition to the type of learning necessary to to do well in that educational field.

Unfortunately, most enter the field for money, and not to help people. (Those who deny that are naive.)

Doctors are just like everyone else....they have their good days, and their bad days, and their good guesses, and their bad guesses (medicine is often a guessing game.)

Stop putting doctors on pedestals. They don't deserve to be there.

[UK875]

I'm sorry you've evidently had a bad experience, but as a medical student and son of a doctor, you are flat out wrong here. First of all, while the medical field is a stable job market that pays well, you don't get rich by being a doctor. You live comfortably, but if you're saying that smart people become doctors for the money, there is much bigger money out there that involves much less stress and a lot more sleep.

The training and education doctors are put through is beyond rigorous. You have to be very organized and motivated just to get by, and the money is not a great motivator. Caring about people is the strongest motivator of me and my classmates, and is the reason we're busting our tails and sacrificing all semblances of a social life every single day. Sure, there are some bad apples who are doing it for money, but from personal experience and lots and lots and lots of exposure to the field, you're flat out wrong to say that most do it.

Do we deserve to be on pedestals? No, nobody does. We're human and try our hardest to do what's best for everyone, but medicine is an art just as much as it is a science. There isn't one right answer for everything. We educate ourselves and prepare every single waking minute to make the best decisions we can possible. Is it a guessing game? A very educated guessing game at times, I suppose, but there is a true art to the practice of medicine.

Trust me, if someone wanted to get rich and live a nice easy life, there are 1,000 better ways to do it than by going to medical school and not making a dime until age 30 (and then, teacher salary for 3-5 years) while accumulating hundreds of thousands in debt. Your comment sounds like you have had a negative personal experience that has made you cynical towards the field, and I'm sorry you experienced that, but to make such a blanket statement saying we're guessers trying to get rich is misinformed and ignorant.