Quaids Sue Maker Of Blood Thinner

ClickonDetroit ^ | December 4, 2007 | AP

[krb]

They gave the babies several orders of magnitude more than you are supposed to give any person. They gave them the “cleaning solution” version of the drug, IIRC.

[Judith Anne]

Actually, spesking as a retired nurse, I agree with the Quaids.

Heparin is not a child/adult dose difference, it’s used in different doses for different reasons.

ALL heparin I ever used was in extremely similar little glass vials, and it used to give me gray hair, checking and double checking to make sure I was using the right dose, particularly for an IV flush.

Seriously, the vials are horrifyingly similar. Maybe someone can find it on line and post pictures. When you’re working in a cramped med room, prepping maybe a dozen meds for a patient, pushed for time with lights going off all over the place, without having eaten anything all day, on your last hour of a 12 hour shift, checking the six rights on every last thing you give, trust me, it can get hairy.

Making the vials VERY different would seem to be a simple safety measure.

[Judith Anne]

The heparin vials are almost identical. They need to be changed for the safety of ALL patients.

[Judith Anne]

I agree. The vials are far too similar.

[Petronski]

Perhaps the Quaids are more interested in getting the manufacturer to change its practices.

That seems to be their only motivation. And they're right.

[TASMANIANRED]

Not suing the responsible parties...

[najida]

Also, the error could have occurred in the pharmacy, by the tech who packed the med carts, or the person labeling patient med trays etc. And YES! These suckers look too much alike. I can see someone, assuming that person a picked the right drug and person b labeled it correctly giving the med.

[Ghengis]

Based on what I’ve read about this case, I think the Quaids have legitimate beef with the manufacturer regarding the packaging. I think they also have a claim against the hospital, as its employee should have caught the different dosage before giving the heparin to the babies. Even though the Quaids didn’t sue the hospital, it will almost certainly be brought into the suit by the manufacturer.

I am guessing that the Quaids are showing empathy for the nurses who made a regrettable mistake. But the environment was made ripe for this mistake to occur. Seems as though the Quaids are being very decent here.

[Vinnie]

I can't vouch for Calif, but in Fla. when you sue there is a dollar figure that places the suit in a different class.
$50k is likely the threshold amount.

By their suit of 'more than' they are probably placing the suit in the major class.

The actual figure will be much more than $50k.

I don't know the legal jargon.

[DryFly]

Can’t sue a California hospital in a Chicago court. Their claim against the hospital also requires that they give the hospital and doctors notice of the suit before it is actually filed. Finally, the case against the hospital is limited to $250,000 in general damages, no such limit as to the manufacturer.

[Wolfie]

Nope, gotta disagree. Nobody should ever be held liable, especially via a lawsuit. You roll the dice in this life, and if somebody’s negligence screws you over, that’s just tough luck.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

The principle that the Quaids would seek to establish, however, is very bad both from a public policy and litigation standpoint. Any hospital will have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of vials, containing a broad range of drugs. Should EACH of the thousands of different drugs get its own custom shape, color and size vial? If not, why not? The labeling, in English, distinguishes the various drugs, and their various doses. The Quaids' suit opens the door for ever more ludicrous claims as to why the wrong drug, or dosage, was administered. The responsibility is in the professionals' hands, in YOUR hands - trying to evade responsibility by claiming that the manufacturer should have taken some extra special step beyond clearly and correctly labeling the drug is absurd. As a thought experiment, extend that reasoning to EVERY product manufactured...as ANY product, used incorrectly, has the potential for lethal consequences. Look at the label telling you not to use your hair-dryer in the shower...and then imagine a world where the principle is extended to every orange juice container containing a warning that drinking too much OJ can kill you. Think the food'n'drug nazis won't go that far?

The point is that any step to lessen the possibility of a bad outcome sounds, in and of itself, supremely reasonable...but tie all these baby steps together and the result is crazy. What happens when every single one of those thousands of drugs have unique containers, unique colors...will you remember what every one signifies? Nope - and then you'll resort to what should be done in the first place - read the label. Sorry you get tired, or frazzled, or rushed - every professional, and many non-professionals, are in the same boat. Will the mechanic, after the accident due to the wrong brake pads he installed, sue the manufacturer to say that different sizes and types of brake pads all deserve specially-designed packaging? If you think that wouldn't happen...well, I'd bet a considerable amount of money that I'm right.

The last thing I would have expected on Free Republic is encounters with the "There Oughta Be A Law" crowd, who think that a law, or a lawsuit, is the solution to any and every conceivable problem.

[NittanyLion]

It certainly appears to me that the packaging is the root cause of this problem. It’s easy to blame human error, but in the vast majority of situations there’s a deeper problem within the process.

[NittanyLion]

The only way to correct the situation is to fire the responsible individuals from the hospital, and hire replacements who can read simple English and follow directions.

A simple analogy...suppose traffic accidents occur at a rate of 1:5000 vehicles transiting an intersection. Yet at one particular intersection, the rate is demonstrated to be 1:500. Are all the drivers at fault here, or is it more likely there's a design flaw in the intersection itself?

[Pilsner]

Seriously, the vials are horrifyingly similar.

I rarely root for the plaintiff in high profile product liability cases, but making near identical vials, with dosages that are 1,000 orders of magnitude stronger, looks a whole lot like an ammo manufacturer making near identical inert training rounds and magnum hollowpoint rounds.

Yeah, folks ought to read the tiny letters on the rim of the casing that tell them if the rounds go bang, but it is not only forseeable, but certain, that some folks are gonna get them mixed up. A mix up like will get innocent people killed. That is why inert training rounds are very different in color and weight from magnum hollowpoints. These vials ought to be very different different too.

[Judith Anne]

What happens when every single one of those thousands of drugs have unique containers, unique colors...will you remember what every one signifies? Nope - and then you'll resort to what should be done in the first place - read the label. Sorry you get tired, or frazzled, or rushed - every professional, and many non-professionals, are in the same boat.

Don't give me your smug attitude. I quit nursing. There is NO REASON to make those vials so similar. It's one of those things every floor nurse knows from day one, it's still the cause of problems. They should just make one of them RED, for the safety of the patients.

FYI, good nurses like me quit. No reason to be under that much stress, and have people like you around, too. I don't need it, there are easier ways to make a decent living. People like me, who really gave a shit, get abused by the hospital patient/nurse ratio.

PS, Reading labels is one of the things I did ALL FREAKING DAY, no matter how many times I read them before. It's part of nursing, you do it because it's protocol.

Changing the vials is GOOD from a public policy and litigation standpoint. *sheesh, some people know it all.*

[aruanan]

The parents, of course. That's like a parent suing Ford because their little Johnny rolled the new Mustang at 140 mph or someone suing Oneida because someone else used one of their forks to stab them in the eye.

Someone at the hospital, not at Baxter, who wasn't too clear on the math made an incorrect working dilution from the stock solution. Personnel who know what they're doing and are exercising due diligence would not have made such an error. The cause of the error doesn't lie in the manufacturer but in the end user. The ones who made the mistake are the ones who must shoulder the responsibility.

[Judith Anne]

Thanks, najida. In real life, the vials can be quite a bit smaller, too.

[aruanan]

Perhaps the Quaids are more interested in getting the manufaturer to change its practices.

Which practices? Putting straightforward, easy to read concentrations on their products?

[TruthFactor]

I hope they lose...