Hollywood star Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the drug Heparin for wrongly labelling the medicine after the couples twins were hospitalised for an overdose.
London, Dec 5 : Hollywood star Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the drug Heparin for wrongly labelling the medicine after the couple's twins were hospitalised for an overdose.
The lawsuit filed against Baxter Healthcare Corporation claims that the firm failed to properly label vials of its product and that the 10-units-per-milliliter vial and the 10,000-units-per-milliliter are virtually identical.
The couple's newborns, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were hospitalised on Nov. 20 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after accidentally being given 1,000 times the recommended dose of Heparin on Nov. 18.
The suit also alleges that the twins "suffered and will continue to suffer injuries" from the accident.
Quaids' lawyer, Susan E. Loggans said that firm knew about the medication errors.
"On a negligence scale of one to 10, Baxter Corporation gets a 10," People quoted Loggans as saying.
"They knew medication errors due to product labelling resulted in death but failed to recall the drug. Each year there's 1.5 million medication errors in America - it is a national epidemic," she added.
Loggans also said that the babies were very critical. While the infants have recovered and everything looks good the Quaids want to help prevent future accidents.
However, Baxter's spokeswoman Erin Gardiner said that the issue here is the improper use of the product.
"This is not a product issue, the issue here is improper use of a product," said Gardiner.
"Heparin is one of the most commonly used generic drugs in a hospital setting manufactured by seven companies in standard vials. It plays a vital role in the treatment of thousands of patients everyday when administered and used properly," she added.
Gardiner further added that in terms of labelling Baxter clearly differentiates the product.
"Baxter strives to clearly differentiate products and dosages, but no amount of differentiation will replace the value of clinicians carefully reading and reviewing a drug name and dose," Gardiner added.
ANI