State hospital regulators are placing the blame directly on Cedars-Sinai hospital for the overdose of Heparin that put Dennis Quaid’s infant twins in jeopardy. It has yet to be decided whether the hospital will face fines, but I guarantee a lawsuit is coming once the Quaids finish suing the makers of Herparin. The LA Times reports:
“This violation involved multiple failures by the facility to adhere to established policies and procedures for safe medication use,” the state wrote. “These violations caused, or were likely to cause, serious injury or death to the patients who received the wrong medication.”
Don’t worry, Cedars-Sinai. You’ve accepted responsibility for your actions and are making changes. This will all blow over. It’s not like you provided ammunition for further malpractice suits by publicly dropping the ball again and violating ethical guidelines by allowing a TV psychiatrist to exploit a situation involving a celebrity mental patient. Whoa. Those are by far the biggest words I’ve ever used in one sentence. Quick, get my camera.
Gadeval | January 10, 2008 at 9:05 am
Nice one Superficial writer!
Jade | January 10, 2008 at 9:09 am
Go Cedars! lol
The Moat | January 10, 2008 at 9:10 am
Quick, send the photo to your mamma. She’ll want to send it to your shrew of an aunt who said you’d never learn a multi-syllabic word.
spellingnazi | January 10, 2008 at 9:13 am
Nice one, except the drug is “heparin,” not “heRparin”
WealthySherry | January 10, 2008 at 9:14 am
@4 – yeah, and when your kids are given the wrong drug by a hospital and almost die, you won’t mind either.
RichPort | January 10, 2008 at 9:15 am
I don’t see the issue here. Itr’s not like these two future dimwits aren’t gonna follow the Hollywood kid phenomenon and get stoned off their parent’s meds. The hospital was just giving them a running start.
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 9:16 am
call me old school but how is one to treat a psychiatric patient effectively now that they have “rights”? And if the Quaids weren’t rich and famous, there would be no lawsuit as the gross negligence is next to impossible to prove and there aren’t any actual health damages. The hospital will settle just to get the limelight removed.
WealthySherry | January 10, 2008 at 9:18 am
hey, what the hell is going on here? when I went to reply, RichPort was #4 (not #6), hence my previous post, which now looks stupid because it’s directed at the wrong poster. and if I was replying to him, how the hell am I now ahead of him!
Me | January 10, 2008 at 9:21 am
It’s spelled H-E-P-A-R-I-N :) just so you know…
paperpony | January 10, 2008 at 9:21 am
unfortunately, you need to file a lawsuit in order to get the hospital to review it’s procedures, and possibly fire the incompetents that did this, to prevent it from becoming a regular thing. the medical profession is mostly “self regulating”, which means that they tend to cover their mistakes, and pretend they never happened. So, the Quaid’s aren’t doing this for the money (since there seldom is any in this type of case), but to prevent it from happening again.
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 9:22 am
oh – Good Morning Fish. You’re up early. Must not have a hangover. Nice spelling! *puts gold star on refrigerator*
Gerald_Tarrant | January 10, 2008 at 9:25 am
Stevie Wonder just called, even he could see that Cedars was at fault.
Pam Anderson might be preggo and this is the best we get this morning?
Jade | January 10, 2008 at 9:37 am
Wasn’t the lawsuit only for $50k? That seems rather small, so I agree it is mostly symbolic and something that will force change. Ultimately, no matter the labeling issues, the people who administered the drug are at fault and need to quit blaming anyone else just because they knew the labels were similar but didn’t take the time to actually look at them. Given that the lawsuit is so small, I am actually glad to see the Quaids spending their time, money, and effort to help bring about a change that has affected and killed other children.. children who didn’t belong to rich stars.
The Moat | January 10, 2008 at 9:42 am
@7 – Gross negligence is easy to prove. Google “Res Ipsa Loquitur”
The punchline is that this coudn’t have happened without gross negligence. The very fact that this overdose occurred is all the evidence of gross negligence that is necessary to win this case.
Toss on top of that that this is an error that is known to have happened in the past, and nobody (neither the hospital nor the manufacturer who labels the bottles) seems to have taken the steps to stop this.
This lawsuit and the treatment it’s received by the hospital and the legal system have not been affected by the fame of the parents in question. The only thing that’s changed is the media coverage.
For the record, they’re suing for very little; roughly $50,000 if memory serves. This isn’t about fame, and it isn’t about money.
Fish-hater | January 10, 2008 at 9:47 am
JERK!
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 9:51 am
@14 I didn’t say it was about fame and money (although I could have stated more succintly) – the Attorneys wouldn’t have bothered taking the case if it weren’t someone of the Quaids pap-power. Texarkana, TX-ARK was featured on 60 Minutes several months ago as having the worst cardiac care in the nation and there aren’t any lawsuits involving St. Michael Hospital and Wadley Hospital but there certainly should be. I even called an Attorney about all the people one of the Cardiac Surgeons has killed and he said “call the medical board” and hung up. The hospitals keep records and they are well aware of this doctor’s track record. So much for changing Policy & Procedure.
D. Richards (Surgeon.) | January 10, 2008 at 10:00 am
Eagh, fuck Dennis Quaid. The guys almost mid-fifties; what’s he doing having kids at that age?
Back in the early Twentieth Century, fifty was the end of a person’s life expectancy. You were considered an oldman at fifty – but now, at fifty, it’s fashionable to start a family. Stupid.
And I’m on Cedar’s side because, admit it, twins are creapy, right? Right.
grobpilot | January 10, 2008 at 10:09 am
#16: The word is “succinctly”. Need to stuff that extra “c” in there. Just trying to help you out. Other than that, I have no reason for posting on this subject. Have a good day.
pinkdate | January 10, 2008 at 10:15 am
what I found is that Heidi has set up a secret profile at http://pinkmingle.com and many pics, videos are showed there ..I wonder what she wants to do there?
The Moat | January 10, 2008 at 10:16 am
“I didn’t say it was about fame… – the Attorneys wouldn’t have bothered taking the case if it weren’t someone of the Quaids pap-power.”
Sure. That makese sense. (<–sarcasm!)
Look, you’re comparing the evidentiary requirements of two completely different scenarios. That’s sort of like saying the Dallas Cowboys won’t win the conference title because the Texas Rangers have a crappy pitching staff. Sure, they’re both from Texas, but….
If a cardiac patient dies, was there negligence? I don’t know. Here’s why..
1) Negligence COULD cause a cardiac patient to die.
2) Cardiac patients sometimes die WITHOUT ANY negligence.
So, even assuming that, as an attorney, you have a case with a dead cardiac patient, and PROVEN negligence, you still don’t know which scenario you’re in.. 1 or 2. To succeed in a tort claim, you need to prove CAUSATION. I.e., just because you have damages (dead cardiac patient) and negligence, you still haven’t proven that the negligence caused the damages. That’s why some medical cases are tricky to try, and attorney’s may be reluctant to take them absent additoinal information.
HOWEVER, that’s not what we have with Quaids Jr. Whereas a cardiac patient CAN die without any negligence, an infant CANNOT get 10,000mg of herapin without negligence. The negligence has proven itself.
As noted, there isn’t a lot of money in this, but it’s an easy case. Whatever lawyer you called that passed on the cardiac patients, he’d still jump at the opportunity to take this one.
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 10:19 am
18 thanks, more help than I’ve had all week.
D. Richards (Lover.) | January 10, 2008 at 10:21 am
#7! Yeah. What genius decided that the mentally ill are actually human-beings, and are to have a say in their own life? That’s beat talk, right there!
I miss the good ol’ days when lobotomies were all the rage, and the mentally disabled were bludgeoned with sticks, and feet.
Get ‘im, Scooter!
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 10:26 am
The Moat – very helpful information, thank you for making it clear. Texas didn’t have anything to do with it though.
Bubbles | January 10, 2008 at 10:36 am
BTW, what the hell is Heparin used for? Can someone explain it to this dumb chick?
Bubbles | January 10, 2008 at 10:36 am
That’s a shame. Poor babies. BUT, he’s old, he was a habitual cocaine user, who knows what REALLY is wrong with those poor babies.
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 10:41 am
@D. Richards (psycho) – I’m not so funny today. I am not proposing that they should bring back old Chicago’s habit of paying $25 per person brought to the Admissions Desk. Fish is pretty crazy but he hasn’t been Inpatient. A person has to be a danger to himself or others to get an emergency hold but then, once admitted, it is very difficult to give them any sort of effective treatment because they don’t want it.
Mister Veryze | January 10, 2008 at 10:57 am
If anyone cares, Dr.Phil is a PSYCHOlogist not a PSYCHIAtrist…but either way I’d still put it in his bum.
D. Richards (Evidently not funny today.) | January 10, 2008 at 11:08 am
#26? Child.. I was on your side ‘today’. Mother-fuck the deranged! Right, woody?!
P.S. You know what was funny ‘today’? When you misspelled ‘succinctly’. I mean, with spell-check, how is it possible to ever spell a word incorrectly?
But, yeah, #18 called you on it; and I laughed; ‘Today’. Big words are fun.
JRZ | January 10, 2008 at 11:13 am
No shit it’s the hospital’s fault…who else’s fucking fault would it be…the babies? Mixing ped doses of medication in with adult doses is a fucking sentinel event waiting to happen. Stupid. Go git ‘em Joint Commission!
wordwile | January 10, 2008 at 11:18 am
He’s cool. I saw many hot guys on ‘interracial loves. com’ . Also I saw his profile there. He’s sincere, sexy and honest there. Of course he’s one of the quality men there.
JRZ | January 10, 2008 at 11:24 am
But, aside from the babies….didn’t dude admit to having Manorexia?
jrz | January 10, 2008 at 11:27 am
FAG!
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1172023,00.html
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veggi | January 10, 2008 at 11:36 am
It’s a totally jew hospital, so they’ll have a pack of the best jew lawyers available. The Quaids will need a lot of luck in court.
veggi | January 10, 2008 at 11:46 am
And before anybody complains, this is from the hospital’s web site:
“Since its inception in 1902, Cedars-Sinai has evolved to become the largest nonprofit hospital in the western United States – one that is internationally renowned for the best patient care modern medicine has to offer. This dedication to excellence is beautifully portrayed in the Jewish Contributions to Medicine mural located in the Harvey Morse Auditorium.”
Evelyn | January 10, 2008 at 11:49 am
So…what’s on the mural, a depiction of an aggressive billing system?
9hearts | January 10, 2008 at 12:01 pm
The kids lived though, right? I don’t remember seeing anything that said they were okay or how there were doing…
Ned the Fucked Up Farmer | January 10, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Jewish Contributions to Medicine……….The Walletectomy
menotrouble | January 10, 2008 at 12:40 pm
@24 bubbles. heparin makes your blood thin. like aspirin. same idea: thinner blood, less thrombosis (heparin) or cardiac insuffiiency (aspirin). used with babies, as they are at risk of bleedings at the brain, I think, to prevent a thrombosis and damage there. the problem is not the product, but the dose (obviously). however bad the mistake was, it was a mistake, so all that suing is irrelevant to me. let
menotrouble | January 10, 2008 at 12:40 pm
@24 bubbles. heparin makes your blood thin. like aspirin. same idea: thinner blood, less thrombosis (heparin) or cardiac insuffiiency (aspirin). used with babies, as they are at risk of bleedings at the brain, I think, to prevent a thrombosis and damage there. the problem is not the product, but the dose (obviously). however bad the mistake was, it was a mistake, so all that suing is irrelevant to me. let
menotrouble | January 10, 2008 at 12:40 pm
@24 bubbles. heparin makes your blood thin. like aspirin. same idea: thinner blood, less thrombosis (heparin) or cardiac insuffiiency (aspirin). used with babies, as they are at risk of bleedings at the brain, I think, to prevent a thrombosis and damage there. the problem is not the product, but the dose (obviously). however bad the mistake was, it was a mistake, so all that suing is irrelevant to me.
menotrouble | January 10, 2008 at 12:42 pm
@24 bubbles. heparin makes your blood thin. like aspirin. same idea: thinner blood, less thrombosis (heparin) or cardiac insuffiiency (aspirin). used with babies, as they are at risk of bleedings at the brain, I think, to prevent a thrombosis and damage there. the problem is not the product, but the dose (obviously). however bad the mistake was, it was a mistake, so all that suing is irrelevant to me. let
Laura | January 10, 2008 at 1:15 pm
NO SHIT!!!! I thought it was the QUAID’S fault!!!! *sigh*
Katie | January 10, 2008 at 1:56 pm
no shit?
and good job posting 4 times, #39, 40, 41, and 42.
baby girl | January 10, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I hope Cedars-Sinai hospital will suffer the consequence.
woodhorse | January 10, 2008 at 4:32 pm
@ D. Richards (Prosemeister) – I seek to emulate your great but humble existence with the occasional misspelled word ( and Fish with his “herparin”) and I will also sometimes make a sexist remark so that I can be one of the guys.
I’m the Air Guitarist of The Superficial.
nurseynurse | January 10, 2008 at 4:51 pm
being a nurse i can’t honestly understand how these guys didn’t check the labels before dosing.
That’s pretty much our job: to make sure s*** is right before giving it.
Not to say we don’t make mistakes. No one is perfect. But come on….this is one of those mistakes I’d never let pass with the new nurses who come through my ICU; it’s so easily avoided by checking your vial.
(whereas if the dr had ordered an overdose, and it was given, I’d have a hard time faulting the nurse for not realizing the dr made a mistake, even if a good nurse would have.)
:/
non | January 10, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Herparin is what Paris Hilton takes
ccdog | January 11, 2008 at 12:10 am
It’s Heparin for the record.
bigfan | January 11, 2008 at 3:46 am
He is a hottie. I saw his profile on millionaire dating site WealthyRomance.com last week. It is said he has a major crush on beautiful young women on that site now.