No amount of money could compenstate for such a horrible experience him and his family have had to to go through, but I sure hope the babies will be ok down the road with no side effects.
scary news about Dennis Quaid's new twins
- Thread starter Swanky
- Start date
Suing the drug company is probably a good tactical move, but doesn't address the real error, which is that someone at the hospital screwed up. In fact several somebodies at the hospital screwed up, from the tech who stocked the cabinet to the nurse who administered the drug. Clearly, he should be suing the hospital first and foremost.
That said, this does appear to be a very common error that happens dozens of times each year across the US. Long before this incident, manufacturers should have teamed up to redesign the vials that these drugs are delivered in. That alone could have protected them from such a suit.
The good news is that an overdose of heparin will probably not leave any longterm affects. Heparin merely thins the blood - the real danger of an overdose is that uncontrollable bleeding might start. After the drug wears off, within a day or two, that's no longer an issue. Most likely, these twins will grow up to be happy and healthy, and have enough money in the bank by age 2 to pay for college, grad school, and a trip around the world.
That said, this does appear to be a very common error that happens dozens of times each year across the US. Long before this incident, manufacturers should have teamed up to redesign the vials that these drugs are delivered in. That alone could have protected them from such a suit.
The good news is that an overdose of heparin will probably not leave any longterm affects. Heparin merely thins the blood - the real danger of an overdose is that uncontrollable bleeding might start. After the drug wears off, within a day or two, that's no longer an issue. Most likely, these twins will grow up to be happy and healthy, and have enough money in the bank by age 2 to pay for college, grad school, and a trip around the world.
Forgive me but as an experienced nurse I have a bit of a problem with this statement, because it just highlights the "it's not my fault, it's the nurse's fault" attitude that so many doctors have. I see this over and over in my job and let me tell you--quite often "it" IS the doctor's fault. I have seen doctors' negligence and arrogance result in a variety of poor outcomes, including death, many times during my career. I sincerely hope that if your husband practices in any sort of teaching capacity that he is not passing along his "Blame the nurse" philosophy to young and impressionable med students.^^That's what DH as telling me. He said Docs aren't doing it, it's nurses and nurses aides.
Having said that---ultimately, with medication administration, it IS the nurse's responsibility to safeguard the patient, and it makes me very sad to read of yet another incident involving a nurse's carelessness. In the 20+ years I have been a nurse I have seen the progressive "dumbing down" of med. administration that has resulted from too many easily avoidable medication errors. We as nurses should know our drugs, question orders that seem inappropriate, double and triple-check ourselves and our colleagues, ask someone if we are unsure what to do, and always always remember that the patient's safety and wellbeing come FIRST. I pray that the Quaid twins will be OK and that this highly public event will serve as a reminder to nurses everywhere to protect our patients and ourselves by taking that extra 30 seconds to ensure Right patient, Right drug, Right dose, Right route and Right time. That is all.
*climbs off soapbox*
Legally, it makes sense to sue to the drug manufacturer, because this is a product liability case.
gosh, im so thankful the babies sound like they are recoving. The poor mum, nurturing them safely for 9 months, and then they are born and are almost killed by imcompetence.