Quaid sues drugmaker over his babies' overdoses

[May 26, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Actor Dennis Quaid has sued the pharmaceutical company that makes the blood thinner heparin following the overdoses that threatened the lives of his newborn twins three years ago.

Quaid sued Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter Healthcare Corp. in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and alleges that packaging caused the drug mix-up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The lawsuit says heparin and a lower-dose version called Hep-Lock are both packaged in similar blue vials with small print on the labels.

The case argues that Baxter should have recalled the heparin vials because the company knew infants had died because of similar medication errors.

Quaid and his wife settled with the hospital for $500,000 in June 2009.

[Associated Press]

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