Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Settlement Reached in Quaid Twin Heparin Case - Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, have reached a $750,000 settlement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the heparin overdose of their now one-year-old twins last year. The hospital had already taken responsibility for the action which nearly killed the Quaid infants.

The overdose of heparin, a blood thinner, came when an employee gave the newborns dosages of the drug that were a thousand times more than required (10,000 units instead of ten). As a result, the California Department of Public Health fined Cedars-Sinai $25,000 for multiple failures to adhere to policies for the use of safe medication. Dennis Quaid also testified before Congress last spring to discuss his twins' case, as well as to disagree with a statute that will make it harder for individuals to take pharmaceutical companies to courts – an action called pre-emption.

The Quaids blame poorly labeled bottles, and sued Baxter Healthcare, the manufacturer of heparin, rather than the hospital. The settlement reached with Cedars-Sinai will now keep the Quaids from pursuing further litigation against the hospital, unless there are complications in the future suffered by the children as a result of the overdose, but does not affect their case against Baxter.

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