Actor Combats Medical Errors
Dennis Quaid’s newborn infants almost died earlier this year after a medication dosing error where they were given an adult dose of a blood thinner. The babies were hospitalized at the time for an infection, however they were doing well when a nurse misread a drug label and inadvertently gave the infants the adult dose, an overdose of the drug for the babies. This caused the infants’ blood to turn essentially into the consistency of water, and they were bruised and bleeding profusely, one of the infants was even bleeding through its belly button. What disturbed Quaid and his wife the most was the hospital’s reaction to the mistake, no one called to notify them, and when they came to visit the next morning, they were confronted by risk management officials from the hospital. While Quaid’s children recovered, other infants have died from similar medication errors regarding pediatric versus adult dosing and labeling. Quaid is now trying to bring attention to medical mistakes in general, which are a leading cause of death in America.
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