The drug Heparin is in the headlines because once again, tiny babies were mistakenly given too much of the anticoagulant used to prevent intravenous blood clots and keep IV lines clear.
This time the overdose isn't being blamed on the company's bad labeling, however. The mistake in this case is co completely due to human error. Hospital pharmacists in a Texas hospital mixed up too strong a dose of Heparin which resulted in seventeen babies being given 100x's the recommended dosage for their size. Two premature siblings have died, but it is not yet known if their deaths were Heparin-related or due to other factors.
Just a couple months ago, actor Dennis Quaid testified before a House committee about the agony his family went through when his newborn twins were given a Heparin overdose. The experience spurred Quaid and his wife to start The Quaid Foundation in order to bring attention to the devastation human error can have in a hospital setting. The site contains a link for people to sign an online petition for the Health Care Quality Improvement Act, that would allow Physicians and nurses to whistle blow without being fired or given penalties for reporting potentially dangerous practices within their work environment.
While it's too late to help the babies in this latest incident, it seems pretty clear that the medical community needs more effective safeguards to protect patients, especially the tiniest ones.
1. Those of us who choose to give birth at home are routinely given guilt over all of the possibilities of what could happen in the case of an emergency, or other various scenarios. This case, and others like it, goes to show that nothing is ever 100% safe and there is a risk to everything. I'm so sad for all those little babies and their families.
Posted at 11:27AM on Jul 14th 2008 by Judy