Dennis Quaid Testified Before Congress Regarding Injury to His Twins

Jennifer Moore

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Yesterday, Dennis Quaid testified before Congress regarding the injuries his twins suffered due to the negligence of a prescription drug manufacturer.  You can watch the video on our website, www.gminjurylaw.com. 

In November, Quaid's 12-day-old twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were undergoing intravenous antibiotic treatment for a staph infection at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Hospital. According to standard procedure, nurses were supposed to clean the infants' IV lines with Hep-Lock, a drug containing a very small dose of the blood thinner heparin, to allow the lines to flow freely.

However, instead of the 10 units of heparin they were supposed to receive, the twins received 10,000 units, 1,000 times the prescribed amount. The babies survived, apparently with no permanent injury, Quaid told members of Congress, although no one knows whether they will show any long-term effects.

The actor grew emotional as he recalled a 41-hour ordeal in which his infants' blood was the consistency of water and their bodies bore bruises from internal bleeding.

"It made me feel that they had survived for a reason ... that maybe they were going to change the world in a little way," he said.

In researching the incident, Quaid told lawmakers he found that the bottles of 10-unit Hep-Lock and 10,000-unit heparin were "virtually indistinguishable." Both drugs are manufactured by Baxter Healthcare.