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Quaid twins receive massive Heparin overdose

Quality Improvement Monitor, November 30, 2007

The two-week-old twins of actor Dennis Quaid were among three children mistakenly given a massive overdose of Heparin last week at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Reuters.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center apologized for what it called the "preventable error" that led to the twins and another unidentified child being given 10,000 units of the anti-coagulant instead of the normal 10 units given to babies, Reuters said.

The three babies suffered no ill effects after being treated with a drug that reverses the effects of Heparin, Michael Langberg, MD, chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai, said in a statement to Reuters.

"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," Langberg told the news service. "Although it appears at this point that there was no harm to any patient, we take this situation very seriously."

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