Dennis Quaid and his wife are in my heart right now. Their new twins are in Cedars-Sinai, in LA, and were overdosed, being given 10,000 units of the anti-coagulant Heperin instead of the 10 units they were prescribed. Both babies started to bleed out. They are now listed as stable, but, I know that can change in a heartbeat with a tiny baby and a mistake this huge.
My family has too much experience with a child who needs serious medical care and frequent hospitilazation. It's the most frightening thing in the world and you can't trust ANYONE to give your baby meds..you always have to check it and ask questions before you allow them to put anything in that IV. Lucky for us, my daughter in law is a question asker. How the hell does a doctors instructions of 10 units become 10,000? It happens. Trust me, it happens WAY more often than you think. Maaaaaan, I really, really hope the Quaid twins come through this.
11 comments:
My thoughts and prayers are with them right now.
I love this man & hope for his babies healthy recovery. I hope no permanent damage has been done! I'd kill someone.
was Meg Ryan the nurse??
in all serious though that is horrible....10 to 10,000??? someone is going to pppaaayyy! i hope they pull thru....
God Bless those poor babies :( and God help * Dennis & his wife * that is horrible !
OMG I hope they sue the fucking ass off that hospital ... what kind of fuckin idiot screws a dose like that up?? Those poor babies, I pray to God they make it thru.
I live in LA and knowing Cedars as I do, I'm simply blown-away that a blunder of this calibre happened *there*.
Ironically, Cedars Sinai Medical Center is pretty much the 'go to' hospital for anyone able to afford the BEST possible hospital care in all of Southern California-- it's actually a status thing.. and no self-respecting celebrity would go elsewhere for treatment.
HMO? Heh.
In any case, hope those babies pull through.
That was so sad to read. I wonder why the nurse didn't question the amounts.
Hoping all will turn out good.
Crystal
Don't assume it was a nurse. Now days, most drugs are prepared and issued to a unit, ready to give patient in the pharmacy, by pharmacist, or usually pharmacy aide. Aides are not licensed in most states, but supervised. This change was made to control number of med errors. But, I have heard of several gigantic errors with this technique. In Ceveland, a baby died because she was given saline, but ordered % was like .25%, and she was given 25%. Damn few nurses ever made errors quite that severe.
Prayers be with the Quaids, and hope babies pull through with no lasting effects (like stroke from brain bleed)!!!
i hate to rain on that parade Barb, but quite a few nurses have made tragic mistakes and taken lives. Nurses are the last check in the system and if the pharmacy was in deed at fault then a trained nurse should have caught that. Unfortunately, with things being so computerized people assume that meds are also correct and dont scrutinize things as much as they used to do. And with our busy lifestyles and understaffing, less time is spent with patients and pushing meds then used to be.
I don't disagree with you. With med errors, there is always plenty of blame to be shared and enough for everyone to get in on it. I was just pointing out that nurses are not the ONLY ones making these errors, and some are more colossol than anay I've seen in 45 years. IMHO, 10,000u/CC HEPARIN SHOULD NOT EVEN HAVE BEEN IN THE NEWBORN UNIT. Heparin for hep lock flushes is 10U or 100U and everything higher phased out.
I was in hospital last week, and every day, I was aware of at least 1 and more like 2-3 med errors on me a day, which I could usually correct. Some were caused by nurses and some by pharmacy. Adults are bad. Bt, these errors on newborns are just so unforgivable.
Thanks for letting me clarify. Nurses share a lions share of this blame. But, there is enough to go around.
Continue prayers for the babies.
im not saying everyone is not to blame barb, im saying that nurses are the last check. during my first rotation in school last year they taught us the computer system, its almost failsafe. it checks the patients id badge, it scans the med vials or foil wrap and allerts you to an error. AND then i checked everything myself 3 times before i gave anything. killing someone is bad enough, but to kill someone when your only goal is healing is horrific, and i hope i never do anything like that.
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