The error in the dosage of the medicine, used to flush intravenous lines to prevent blood clots from forming, was discovered Sunday night by hospital nurses who noticed abnormalities in lab tests, said Spohn CEO Bruce Holstein. They discontinued its use immediately and gave newborns who needed it different medications.

Two babies have been released since the discovery was made and the others were being monitored carefully. Holstein told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that the babies’ reactions to the overdoses varied, and he did not know details about effects.

Pharmacy operations were halted temporarily Monday. He said the error was believed to have happened in the pharmacy when the medicine was mixed.

Last fall this same situation happened at the Los Angeles Hospital Dennis and Kimberly Quaid’s twins were being looked after.

Although the babies have both recovered, the couple filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company that makes the drug citing that medication errors occurred due to product labeling. Their suit also claimed that each year there’s 1.5 million medication errors in America.

The California Department of Public Health, which determined the penalty, cited the prominent Los Angeles hospital in January after an investigation found “multiple failures by the facility to adhere to established policies and procedures for safe medication use.”

“The hospitals take this extremely seriously,” state deputy director Kathleen Billingsley told the Los Angeles Times Thursday. Cedars was one of 11 facilities fined for various violations, she said.

The twins, Thomas and Zoe Quaid, were at Cedars on Nov. 18 being treated for staph infections when they were given 1,000-times—10,000 units per milliliter rather than 10—the proper dosage of heparin, an anticlotting drug regularly used to flush out intravenous lines.

In the statement hospital officials say that the accidental overdose, which occurred on Sunday, was a “preventable error”.

Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were accidentally given a massive dose of Heparin, an anti-coagulant. Babies typically get 10 units. It is believed that they were each mistakenly given 10,000 units. While the statement did not mention the Quaid twins specifically, it did say:

“I want to extend my deepest apologies to the families who were affected by this situation, and we will continue to work with them on any concerns or questions they may have,” said Dr. Michael L. Langberg, chief medical officer at Cedars. He added: “This was a preventable error, involving a failure to follow our standard policies and procedures, and there is no excuse for that to occur at Cedars-Sinai. Although it appears at this point that there was no harm to any patient, we take this situation very seriously.”

According to Langberg, three unidentified patients had their IVs flushed with an overly high concentration of heparin, used to keep IV catheters from clotting.

“As a result of a preventable error, the patients’ IV catheters were flushed with heparin from vials containing a concentration of 10,000 units per milliliter instead of from vials containing a concentration of 10 units per milliliter,” said Langberg. “The error was identified by Cedars-Sinai staff, who immediately performed blood tests on the patients to measure blood clotting function.”

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Dennis Quaid’s Newborn Twins Accidentaly Overdosed By Hospital Staff

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