[megananne7]

Actor Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly Buffington have filed suit against Baxter Healthcare Corp., the makers of the drug Heparin.

The couple's newborn twins Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone were mistakenly given a massive overdose of the anti-coagulant drug last month while hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. ...The suit claims the Baxter is liable and negligent because the packaging of the 10 unit vial of Heparin looks almost exactly as the 10,000-units-per-milliliter vial of the drug.

...Just yesterday, Baxter issued a news release outlining the company's new "drug safety initiative" that promises to change the labeling of Heparin vials.

http://www.tmz.com/2007/12/04/dennis...-drug-company/

[oramar]

These infants are not the first to have there life threatened by this mistake. Personally I can't imagine a good reason for not making the change sooner.

[Valerie Salva]

1000u/ml, 5000u/ml, and 10,000u/ml vials of heparin are are in differently sized vials with different cap colors.

I don't see how this case can stand up in court.

[Jolie]

Originally Posted by Valerie Salva

1000u/ml, 5000u/ml, and 10,000u/ml vials of heparin are are in differently sized vials with different cap colors.

I don't see how this case can stand up in court.

It is the 10u/cc vial (used to flush hep locks in neonates) that looks almost exactly like the 10,000u/ml vial. If you go online you can view the two vials side by side and see the remarkable similarity.

I'm not excusing the techs who apparently mis-stocked the vials, or the nurses who apparently mis-read the labels, but this is a well-known problem that killed 3 infants in Indianapolis earlier this year. It is inexcusable that Baxter failed to address the similarities after the Indianapolis incident.

[Elvish]

I was wondering why it is only a big deal to this company when the children who are harmed are the children of someone famous.

[Valerie Salva]

Arwen,

I wonder if this situation has come up a lot in the past with Baxter, or if this is the first suit of this type for them?

Who knows?

But I am glad they are addressing it.

By the way, I like your signature line. I'm a big fan of Johnny Cash.

[megananne7]

Originally Posted by Jolie

It is the 10u/cc vial (used to flush hep locks in neonates) that looks almost exactly like the 10,000u/ml vial. If you go online you can view the two vials side by side and see the remarkable similarity.

I'm not excusing the techs who apparently mis-stocked the vials, or the nurses who apparently mis-read the labels, but this is a well-known problem that killed 3 infants in Indianapolis earlier this year. It is inexcusable that Baxter failed to address the similarities after the Indianapolis incident.

I am a newer nurse and havent worked in a facility yet that uses Heparin on a regular basis, but... I did find this:
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2...02-06-2007.pdf

Those two vials of Heparin, while somewhat similar, ... you can obviously tell a difference between the blues and the colors of the tops.

[JVanRN]

Originally Posted by Arwen_U

I was wondering why it is only a big deal to this company when the children who are harmed are the children of someone famous.

Sadly because it happened to be a famous person's children, it WILL get more attention.

The Quaids certainly don't need the money. I think they are using their fame to call attention to a very important issue. If thats what it takes, then so be it. I'm not saying Baxter is entirely to blame...but those vials need to be changed. There is very little difference in the heparin syringes we use. The only difference is one has a light blue cap and the other has a dark blue...and the wrong ones have been stocked on our unit TWO times in the past year...luckily it was caught. Quaids babies were not so lucky...but luckily they will be okay.

I notice they aren't suing the hospital or the nurse.

[cardiacRN2006]

Originally Posted by megananne7

I am a newer nurse and havent worked in a facility yet that uses Heparin on a regular basis, but... I did find this:
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2...02-06-2007.pdf

Those two vials of Heparin, while somewhat similar, ... you can obviously tell a difference between the blues and the colors of the tops.

Sure you can see the difference-when they are compared right next to each other. But there was only one type of heparin in that pyxis that day, and it was blue. Just like they are used to having.



I have no idea what cap color the ones we use at work are. But I know the label is orange.

So if another orange label heparin is stocked in my pyxis, I can easily see making the mistake.



Not to mention my hospital frequently has other brands of meds. They aren't always the same brand. Sometimes we have brand name Diprivan (blue) sometimes generic (green). Sometimes our ativan is brown, sometimes blue.



My point.....blue heparin in it's spot like it always is makes an accident like this easy to happen.

[trethern]

I was just wondering how common heparin is to flush IV's anymore. I haven't worked in a hospital that used heparin flushes for peripheral lines in about 6 years, we even have special adapters so we don't flush central lines with anything but saline either. I know the heparin was a problem in our hospital because a few years ago all of the bottles for flushes looked exactly the same.