Photo by Bridgette Blair
Taking a mislabeled drug or using a defective medical device is a dangerous thing. Just ask actor Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly.
In November 2007, their newborn twins were given a massive overdose of Heparin, an anticoagulant drug. The twins were supposed to receive another drug that would ease the intravenous administration of antibiotics. Why were they given the wrong medication? The two drugs’ labels were similar. Baxter Healthcare Corp., the manufacturer of both drugs, was aware of the problem – in 2006, the same confusion over the labeling of Heparin caused the death of three infants at an Indianapolis hospital. Baxter relabeled Heparin to avoid this confusion before the Quaid twins were born. But here’s the shocker: The company didn’t recall the drug stock with the confusing label, so it remained on pharmacy shelves and was eventually injected into the twins.
The twins survived, barely.
Dennis Quaid made his way to the Hill this morning to tell his and his wife’s story at a Congressional hearing, and Public Citizen attorney Brian Wolfman accompanied them as part of their legal counsel. (Wolfman, director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group and a preemption expert, has written an article about preemption and why its proponents are wrong in TRIAL Magazine.)
This week, lobbyists from the trucking and shipping industries are making the rounds at the Capitol, pushing their agenda to put longer and heavier trucks on the road. Fortunately, some of the more enlightened members of Congress such as Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Claire McCaskill and Rep. James McGovern are having none of it. There’s plenty of evidence that shows these mammoth rigs are responsible for disproportionate number of traffic fatalities each year. The fact is, the larger the trucks get, the harder they are to control and the longer they take to stop. Today, safety groups, including Public Citizen, along with the above-mentioned members of Congress 
