Home : Nurse!, Dennis Quaid : Hospital Chief Calls Quaid Tragedy "Preventable Error"

Hospital Chief Calls Quaid Tragedy "Preventable Error"

Posted Nov 20th 2007 10:30PM by TMZ Staff

Dennis QuaidAfter staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center accidentally gave Dennis Quaid's newborn twins and several other patients an overdose of the blood thinner heparin, the hospital's Chief Medical Officer, Michael L. Langberg, MD, apologized and issued a statement this evening.

According to Dr. Langberg, the error was "preventable" and involved "a failure to follow our standard policies and procedures." He said "there is no excuse for that to occur at Cedars-Sinai."

As for the twins, the statement did not identify them by name, but did say after giving "two patients" protamine sulfate, they "indicated no adverse effects from the higher concentration of heparin or from the temporary abnormal clotting function. Doctors continue to monitor the patients."

Click here to read Dr. Langberg's complete statement.

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1. Glad to know Cedars is stepping up and taking responsibility...as it should. It's only by discussing these errors that we can prevent them.
Also happy to know the twins are not suffering ill effects.
As I stated before, these errors happen daily and are preventable...but it's usually several errors in the chain of events that lead to this...not just one big error.
I am a registered nurse and would be heart sick if I were the one who made the error.

Posted at 10:40PM on Nov 20th 2007 by grahamcracker977

2. oh boy, this is horrible

Posted at 10:50PM on Nov 20th 2007 by catty

3. The babies were supposed to get 10 units of the drug and they got 10,000 units!

There is no official word yet if the babies are going to survive.

A family friend of ours has lost almost all of his children to an extremely rare genetic condition. The disease is so rare that they went to Nova Scotia to find other blood relatives from a tiny line of descendants who might have had the means to donate bone marrow to save the children.

One of his daughters was at a big medical center and she got a transfusion into her arteries or some such, which almost killed her. She died down the line from her condition.

Posted at 10:51PM on Nov 20th 2007 by Lilarose

4. Can you say lawsuit... So are the kids ok?

Posted at 10:58PM on Nov 20th 2007 by Internet Marketing

5. We can all thank GW , due to the fact that one of the first things he did as Prez, was to cap malpractice reward amounts. Whatta jerk!

Posted at 10:59PM on Nov 20th 2007 by jbird

6. I think they said around a dozen patients had this happen to them at Cedars...

Posted at 11:10PM on Nov 20th 2007 by Stef

7. In addition to Quaids twins this also happened to several other patients.
I hope the celebrity factor brings attention to the malpractice and negligence that is happening in the hospitals today. My mother was butchered to death at Cedars and I know several others who experience death or near death experiences at Cedars Sinai. I hope all affected in this terrible event recover and return to their families.

Posted at 11:17PM on Nov 20th 2007 by bellarue

8. Money doesn't bring back dead people. There should be a cap because there are jerks who abuse things it's everywhere. I'm not saying there shouldn't be compendation but To put a price tag on health or loss of is a very sick thing.

Posted at 11:20PM on Nov 20th 2007 by me too

9. ..I posted my thoughts on this in the previous tag....tired of all this medical stuff tonite, but appreciate the news.

Posted at 11:25PM on Nov 20th 2007 by jr

10. Terrible news :(
It is so sad that this kind of things happens...
A MESSAGE FOR PEACE

Posted at 11:27PM on Nov 20th 2007 by Marce

11. forgot the link :P
A MESSAGE FOR PEACE: http://www.spymac.com/details/?2307250

Posted at 11:28PM on Nov 20th 2007 by Marce

12. ah heparin, the same thing that was found in oj's blood samples on the gate. Heparin is added to vacutainers used to take blood samples, so the blood on the gate came from vacutainers, let me spell it out, it was planted by LAPD, but the real question is why was heparin administered to a healthy infant?

Posted at 11:33PM on Nov 20th 2007 by don_pap

13. best wishes to the Quaid family and the babies

Posted at 11:31PM on Nov 20th 2007 by mike

14. ...# 1....that was my end point when I posted on the previous posting abt this case...."chain of events"....happens all the time, and the public hears most abt it from the NTSB with pilot error...only now we have " celeb babies "...poor little tikes !!!

Posted at 11:32PM on Nov 20th 2007 by jr

15. Like, no duh!!!!! We knew it was preventable, so the nurse better start looking for a job in home health care. She'll be lucky if she keeps her license. Hope her bloods clean. Sounds like they're gonna be okay though, thank God.

Posted at 11:44PM on Nov 20th 2007 by Lindy

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