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Talk about a parent’s worst nightmare…
Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins are fighting for their lives after being overdosed with way too much Heparin, a blood thinner. Babies usually get 10 units, but a nurse grabbed the medicine (which a technician stored in the wrong place) without looking and mistakenly gave Thomas and Zoe 10,000 units instead — and the babies started to “bleed out.” According to TMZ, the babies, who are in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai in L.A., are now being given a drug that reverses the effects of Heparin.
And to think I was bummed because Vons.com accidentally delivered Granny Smith apples instead of Red Delicious ones this morning. Sure puts things in perspective, huh?
X 1,000,000
November 20th, 2007 at 4:13 pm - ReplyI smell a lawsuit. Sucks to be that nurse.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:16 pm - ReplyThis is insane. A doctor and other medical staff should have double checked the dosage. That, and the nurse should have known the proper dosage from the beginning. My point??? Something is wrong with this story. Either this nurse did this intentionally, or she mistakened the medicine for another medication which may carry a much higher dosage. This never should have happened. Sadly however, nurses and doctors are largely over worked.
The problem is, the nurses who are the primary care givers are not compensated properly, meaning they are under paid, are often under appreciated, and the over excessive and horribly long working hours can lead to a white line effect, leaving a person in a state similar to intoxication.
The medical industry really needs to clean itself up…and all medicines, whenever possible should be dispensed after, and only after…a triple redundancy check by medical personnel.
God Bless to the Quaid family.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:13 pm - ReplyThose poor babies. =(
November 20th, 2007 at 6:03 pm - Replythis is very scary. I do hope those babies are okay.
November 20th, 2007 at 6:18 pm - ReplyPoor babies! Poor parents! More than a nightmare. Lets hope everything turns out OK.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:35 pm - ReplyWTF????????
I pray these babies make it, and I agree
November 20th, 2007 at 7:42 pm - ReplySadness times a MILLION!
with all that Zip said.
dear god.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:15 pm - Replythat is horrendus.
i hope everything turns out ok.
Such a horrifying situation.
My dad was recently in the hospital. As I watched the nurses do their rounds, it occurred to me that human error was inevitable. Their shifts are brutal. I admire them.
As Zip said: “God bless the Quaid family.”
November 20th, 2007 at 8:53 pm - Replylawsuit city. Incidents like this are one reason our medical insurance and costs are sky high. Hope the babies will be okay.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:06 am - ReplyMy thoughts and sympathy are with the Quaide family. I hope everything turns out for the best.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:10 am - ReplyOn 3/5/06, Cheryl was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for routine dialysis as a result of problems with her home dialysis machine. Cheryl had been receiving dialysis for several years due to renal issues, so this was not unusual.
When Cheryl was admitted to the hospital on 3/5/06, a staff physician conducted a standard exam at admission. The exam report on 3/5/06 does not mention any external injuries; in fact, the report states that all external areas were normal.
On the first night of Cheryl’s stay, Cheryl suffered head trauma and soon after that she went into a coma. Cheryl was dropped on her head and/or severely beaten. I questioned hospital staff numerous times about these unexplained injuries.
After my mom suffered head injuries, the hospital falsified records starting the next day, 3/6/06, to make it appear that Cheryl was in a car accident that caused the injuries in question.
I have photos of Cheryl in which, according to her treating physician, Dr. Blumenkrantz, “she looks like she got beat up by Mike Tyson.” At all time Dr. Blumenkrantz was obstructive about my mom’s chances of recovering from her injuries. In addition, while requesting physical therapy, Dr. Blumenkrantz refused to give my mom any therapy and left inappropriate messages on my machine regarding my request for physical therapy. These messages were left as she was starting to get sores on her bottom (see picture dates), but they were still not nearly as bad as they became.
First message:
Hi Stephanie, this is Dr. Blumenkrantz. I would like to continue to take care of your mom. I have been taking care of her for eight years, your mom wants me to continue to take care of her. I can not…We can not talk effectively. I can not deal with an immature, uh, teenager, uh who’s out of control, and umm, and uhh, it’s very upsetting to me, I try to be nice. I understand that you are angry, etc. which is a normal reaction to your mom being sick. But, it’s getting worse and worse more and more demanding and more and more antagonistic and more threatening. So, I am not going to be talking to you any more, I am going to be talking to Therese and Dan, uh, and inform them on what’s going on with your mom and uh, you can get the information from them. But, I do want to continue to take care of your mom, we have a nice relationship and I think I can do the best job possible taking care of her.
Second Message:
Stephanie, I apologize for telling you to shut up. But, umm, I have trouble dealing with you and obviously you have trouble dealing with me. Umm, I have a heart condition, I am 63 years old, I have taken excellent care of your mom for the last eight years, including this admission and umm, this is just not a uh a way, a mature way to deal with issues. I suggest that you talk with your psychiatrist about, uh dealing with the doctors and making demands, etc. I have been doing medicine for almost 40 years and I have never had to deal with a family member like you. Umm, so, I think it’s best that I talk to umm ,pause, your sister and brother about what’s going on with your mom and, uh, talk with your mom also and get her permission for issues. Umm, I am sorry, and I always always through your mom had affection for you and how nice it was that you were doing. But, this is not a very mature relationship and uhh, I can not deal with this. Umm, thank you.
These messages were sent on 4/30/2006, 9am.
Over the next few months, Cheryl’s condition began to deteriorate. Cheryl suffered through multiple pressure sores all over her body. The hospital failed to rectify them. The hospital also failed to give Cheryl physical therapy, which reduced her mobility. I tried to do it myself by moving my mom’s joints for her, but at one point I broke my arm and I could not continue to do so. My mom became stiff as a board. Her hands became gangrenous, as did a large portion of her head. I have photos of all of this.
The hospital’s stories didn’t add up. First, my mom suffered severe head trauma and went into a coma. Then, the hospital neglected her, which caused pressure sores and stiffness that they wouldn’t treat sufficiently.
Due to further neglect by the hospital, my mom’s decubitus ulcers worsened, turning into grotesque Stage IV lesions on her tailbone and other parts of her body. My mom’s legs split open and bled. My mom’s hand, one or two of her toes, and part of her head turned gangrenous(I have photos to review).
As we came close to the time in the law suit, where my mom was supposed to do a deposition for the hospital, she was completely off the trach and on the trach collar, finally a speech therapist came one time to try and have my mom talk. The speech therapist came in for five minutes with my mom, she put the blocker on my mom’s trach to see if she could talk and a little bit of sound started to come out of my mom’s voice. The speech therapist was shocked quickly took it off and said we would not be able to do any more until Monday, this was Friday. But, Sunday, night my mom went into the ICU and about a month later she died. The day the speech therapist came into my mom’s room my mom’s weight was about 125 lbs. The day my mom died, she weighed about 170 lbs from the dialysis fluid they would add and then not remove from my mom’s body. This close to 50 percent increase in her weight would have course be horrible on her heart and lungs and now they had to pump/breathe through so much more and unnecessary fluid
In the last weeks of my mom’s life, things appeared grave. One physician, Dr. Hadian, at Cedars told me on Friday, June 13, 2007 that my mom was like a crystal that has broken into many pieces and that, while [I] can be paid for the crystal, I would never get the crystal back.
I was shocked to hear that, because around that time it seemed like the hospital staff was purposely reducing my mom’s care. They wanted me to start giving her sugar water instead of food and they were trying to stop her dialysis altogether. In fact, her main doctor, Dr. Kir Uomoto, informed me that the house staff was threatening my mom’s new nephrologist, Dr. Jack Ditlove, to stop dialysis. I as Cheryl’s conservator, would not allow this to happen, and I would try to make sure they were giving her dialysis and food. However, since I stopped the hospital from ending dialysis, the hospital got around me by adding the dialysis fluid to Cheryl’s body but not removing it. The hospital stopped correctly removing my mom’s (Cheryl’s) dialysis fluid in June 2007. Even I, a layperson, know that not removing dialysis fluid will eventually cause the patient’s death. My mom gained 50 pounds over the next three to four weeks. The hospital ignored my requests to make sure her dialysis fluid was properly removed.
On 7/27/07, two days before my mom’s death, someone on the hospital staff removed her rectal tube, which was necessary for her to expel waste. When I got to the hospital that evening, I saw one of the physicians, Dr. Hadian, in my mom’s room, she was just leaving. I asked Dr. Hadian what she was doing, and Dr. Hadian said to me that she “was just rearranging some of the tubes.” Dr. Hadian then said she couldn’t talk and had to go. I immediately noticed that my mom’s rectal tube was gone. I frantically asked the hospital staff what happened to the rectal tube, but they all denied that my mom ever had the tube.
On 7/28/07, late afternoon, I saw fecal matter start to come up through my mom’s GI feeding tube. This is when I began to panic. I first tried to get some answers from the hospital staff and get x-rays performed to see what was happening and why my mom wasn’t expelling any waste through her rectum. None were forthcoming. I called my mom’s main doctor concerned about the fecal matter. He left a message on my machine, which I have a copy of stating.
Stephanie, Dr. Uomoto, so I talked to the house staff they spoke with Dr. Karambie who recommended to hold the feedings for a total of three hours and then resume them. So, I I think that is reasonable, so I don’t, I don’t think that is going to do her any harm. Ummm. So, you know whatever, however, long it has been held, if it’s been held or an hour or two hours, they will hold it for a total of three and then restart the feedings, so, uhh. And I asked and uhh I talked to Dr. Karambie and have him call you tomorrow and have him kinda explain what’s going on GY..GI wise. Honestly, I don’t know I don’t know what’s going on with the, uhhh, the dark stuff. So, I will have Dr. Karambie call you. Uhh. OK If you have any questions give me a call. Bye. Received Saturday July 28th at 6:02 pm.
I called him back and again explained to him that fecal matter appeared to be coming out of my mom’s GI feeding tube. He said that they would temporarily stop the feeding and that the nurse would measure the fecal matter as it flowed out of the GI feeding tube and that I could not get any x-rays done, or have anything checked he assured me that she would be fine until the next morning when Dr. Karambie would be able to assess her and find out what is wrong. He told me that Dr. Karambie would see her the next morning at around 7 or 7:30am. I called my attorney via his paralegal (whom discussed the situation with my mom’s attorney), this was the only time I ever called the attorney’s office stating it’s an immediate emergency, I was told that my attorney and his firm were not responsible for my mom’s situation in the hospital and that he was only her attorney regarding the law suit and could not do anything to help her.
I stayed at the hospital all night. I asked the nurse and house staff whether or not the feeding should be stopped or to have it stay on, they said that it should stay on 10cc. The next morning Dr. Karambie did not show up and I began requesting x-rays, etc. to be done. Then, at around 9/9:30, Dr. Uomoto showed up and said that it was too late nothing could be done and that my mom was going to die.
I began to get upset as he had assured me she would be ok until now and he said that he was sorry but that nothing could be done. Soon after this Dr. Karambie showed up and said nothing could be done to save her and he refused to do any x-rays, etc. He said it was too late and she was too sick to do anything. Soon after this conversation, my mom died. I was also told by my mom’s attorney on the case that once my mom died her case against the hospital died with her. This gives the hospital a huge motive to kill my mom. In addition, on several occasions I tried having my mom transferred to another hospital. But, Cedars-Sinai would tell me that “she was not a candidate” and when I would ask why they said that once she is in their hospital if they are capable of doing whatever it is that she needs, I can’t transfer her to another hospital.
After my mom’s death, it was very difficult for me to get the body from the hospital. First, they informed me in front of several witnesses that an autopsy isn’t possible, except by them and they wanted me to sign a form. I told them, that I wanted someone else to do the autopsy and they said that would not be possible as A. my mom’s body is not a coroner’s case and even if it were it would cost over $5000. I said I did not care how much it would cost, I still wanted an autopsy done out of the hospital. I arranged for Forest Lawn to pick up her body, and when forest lawn tried to pick up her body the hospital refused to give them the body and said that she was a coroner’s case and would go to the coroner. I had Forest Lawn call Cedars-Sinai again with me present and this time we told Cedars-Sinai, if she is a coroner’s case we will make sure the coroner’s office picks her up otherwise Forest Lawn will pick her up, it is up to them. They then finally allowed Forest Lawn to then pick her up and from there I took my mom’s body to a private autopsy person. The private autopsy person started to do the autopsy and said that my mom’s body was is such horrific shape that he had never seen anything like it in even his previous 20+ years experience at the LA County Coroner’s Office. (aka, she had what appeared to be fecal matter in all in strange parts of her body and horrific stage IV ulcers all over her body including her head, and was gangrenous on part of her head and hand.)
December 1st, 2007 at 6:03 am - ReplyLooking forward to your possible help,
Stephanie Bunt
310-592-9844
stephanie_bunt@yahoo.com