By M&C People May 14, 2008, 16:27 GMT
After the scare at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles that nearly took the lives of his newborn twins, actor Dennis Quaid has gone to Washington to call for some changes.
Dennis Quaid - © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos
His babies are recovering from a near fatal medical error, and now Quaid appeared on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, and assured lawmakers that his fight wasn't over.
Quaid joins a group that is telling the House Oversight panel today just because the FDA approves a drug, it doesn't make it safe.
Back in November 2007, the Quaids' twins were given doses of the blood thinner Heparin that were 1,000 times the dose they should have received.
It was revealed that the labels of the different doses looked similar, leading to hospital staff errror.
The Quaids now are suing Heparin maker Baxter Healthcare Corporation for not changing the labels from the shelves while it was allegedly addressing the problem. The company warned hospitals and submitted label changes to the FDA, but did not recall the bottles still on the market .
"I am not even sure a lab rat had ever received such a high dose of heparin that was causing them to bleed out," Quaid told lawmakers.
"Their now water-thin blood was flowing out of every place that they had been poked and prodded," he said. "They faced the very real possibility of hemorrhaging through a vein or artery, causing massive brain damage or failure of one of their vital organs ... They were both screaming in pain, and God only knows what they were feeling."
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