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Quaid Speaks Out on Medical Mistakes

CBS interview highlights nationwide epidemic of preventable deaths

By Katherine Thompson, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 15, 2008 1:11 PM CDT

(Newser) – Dennis Quaid has gone on record about the frightening ordeal of his newborn twins receiving massive overdoses of blood thinners, and now he's going on 60 Minutes to ratchet up his information campaign. Quaid's interview, which will be broadcast tomorrow evening, uses his own harrowing story to highlight medical errors that kill 100,000 people a year in the US. "Our kids are bleeding from every place that they've punctured," he recalled. "It was blood everywhere."

Quaid's twins were mistakenly given adult Heparin instead of the children's version, Hep-lock; packaging on the two looks alike, though the adult version is 1000 times stronger. The twins nearly bled to death—three similarly dosed children in Indiana did die—and Quaid is suing the drug's maker, Baxter International, for not recalling its misleading packaging.

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

Dennis Quaid arrives with his wife, Kimberly Buffington, at the premiere of a film in Los Angeles, in this April 11, 2006, file photo. Quaid will be speaking out on air about hospitals' errors. (Associated Press)

Actor Dennis Quaid arrives at the premiere of "Smart People" during the Sundance Film Festival, in this Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008 photo, in Park City, Utah. (Associated Press)

Actor Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly arrive at the premiere of "Vantage Point" at AMC Lincoln Square Theatres, in this Feb. 20, 2008, file photo in New York. (Associated Press)

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Quaid Speaks Out on Medical Mistakes