Posted on 12/04/2007 3:28:51 PM PST by ShadowDancer
Well, if this lawsuit forces the manufacturer to do more to recall the meds w/ confusing packaging AND to issue urgent warnings to med staff, then it’s a good thing.
I’ve seen the vials. I also know how med carts/tray are packed and labeled. It’s way too too easy a mistake to make.
And damn easy to fix.
I’m sorry, I side with the Quaids. The manufacturer should (reasonably)have forseen the opportunity for confusion and had distinct and unmistakably different markings.
“So they aren’t suing the people that actually made the “preventable error” but instead are suing the manufacturer for not doing more to prevent third parties from making preventable errors.”
Doesn’t make sense to me....but who has the money?
So adequate heparin will not be available for procedures that require full heparinization? That will make going on a perfusion pump a lot of fun.
I have never heard of a heparin shortage. If you know of one, please tell me.
I haven’t heard of one either unless they recall the large dosage.
Heparin is used so often that a simple change in the color of the labels would get into the stream within a week, without recalling anything.
False analogy, as there is evidence that changing the timing of a traffic light - or cutting down the bush obscuring the stop sign :-) - will make transiting that intersection safer. I.e., the principle is established in the law, AND there is sound science backing up the principle.
The Quaids’ asserted claim falls under the rubrics established under, for example, the Restatement of Torts. However, rather than alleging that the labeling was itself inadequate, they seek to interpose a new type of claim, relating to packaging design (and specifically, color). So they are seeking a new type of claim. This is much more than a small correction to a small problem. It is instead a humongous correction to a small problem...and a “correction” that itself opens doors to much more extensive litigation claims for every sort of product imaginable. I can’t believe how many people are not lifting their eyes from the specific issue to what it means as a legal principle. And history shows that once that legal genie is out of the bottle, virtually nothing can rein it in.
The lawyer is asking for a recall of the larger dosage. That could equal a temporary shortage for Cardiac surgery.
The Quaids are in the right. The manufacturer should have different colored labels for heparin strengths. That is not an expensive remedy compared to the alternative. Right now it is just way too easy to make a mistake.
I don’t. As mentioned above, $50,000 is a token amount. The real reason for this suit is so that the manufacturer changes the basic look of one of the dosage vials.
If one had a red label and one had a blue label, these accidents would be much less frequent. The fewer accidents, the fewer accidental deaths. It’s really that simple.
The manufacturer should have taken this initiative on their own. The fact that they didn’t is the precise reason for even being able to sue a company.
They almost lost their children, they are taking the effort to prevent other families from losing their children. I hope they win, or better, that Baxter settles and makes the required changes so that more lives can be saved.
Yep. They should be labeled better. Recalls have to be done carefully though. Two years ago a recall of lithium caused quite a bit of trouble in the psych community.
If the packaging design leads to confusion and errors, I fail to see why a lawsuit shouldn't be filed. In this case the manufacturer had evidence that the packaging is inadequate, there is a simple remedy, they failed to undertake said remedy.
Seems like a very legitimate use of the legal system.
Ignoring your uncalled-for personal insults, I say "Bravo" that you read the labels when you were a nurse. It's part of the job...and had the labels been read before the drug was administered, the Quaids would not be suing. It has nothing to do with the fault the manufacturer...or the thousands of manufacturers of hundreds of thousands of drugs...it's the specific individual in that hospital who goofed. If you think changing the color of the label will make administering the correct medication in the correct dosage fool-proof, I would suggest that the entire history of human existence proves you're wearing rose-tinted glasses.
The easiest way to prevent this "preventable error" is to change the packaging. They *are* very similar.
And $50,000 is obviously a token amount, just to bring attention to the matter. I say good for the Quaids!
Interesting that the nursery was still using heparin locks on infants. I was a NICU nurse for ten years and we changed to plain saline locks for just this reason, to prevent catastrophic errors. We didn’t have problems with occlusion or clotting, either, by using saline.
Who's suggesting it will make the system fool-proof? Certainly no one on this thread. Folks are simply stating that different packaging will make mixups far more unlikely. Do you disagree?
Let's be generous and assume that her figures were not pulled from her imagination (though lawyers are always ready to perceive a new epidemic of some kind that requires their "unique" services to address). If you will grant the assumption that a large fraction of those purported 1.5 million medication errors can be lassoed into some sort of defective packaging claim (these are claims that otherwise would in liklihood be stopped by the 421A adequate labeling threshold), then I think there's certainly room for concern as to the impact of additional hundreds of thousands of claims going through our courts - especially as the labeling is in itself adequate if the professional administering the drug simply fulfilled their duty to read the label. Good ones do...and the ones who don't should be drummed out of their profession. Also, such claims under this novel legal principle would NOT be limited to the medical field...so now we're discussing a massive change in principle applicable to virtually every sector of the economy. As a lawyer, I'm in fact arguing against the interests of the legal profession, which rarely refuses the opportunity to expand its sphere of business. :-)
The Quaids are also relying on the unproven hypothesis that that their children would not have been damaged but for the color of the packaging. Is it easier or more efficient to change the entire world based upon unproved supposition, or to get rid of the incompetent so-called professionals...with the bonus of 100% assurance that those morons will never have the opportunity to repeat their mistake or create novel ones?
I gave birth in a military hospital. I remember they put a heparin lock on me and the bottle dosage was highlighted with a colored marker. Now I know why.
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