- U.S. Congress and Supreme Court: Listen to what Dennis
Quaid has to say about Big Pharma's Abuses.
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- A nightmarish story of two week old twins of Dennis Quaid
and Kimberley Buffington, getting overdosed by a 1000 times overdose of
blood thinner Heparin* at LA Cedars Sinai Hospital (*already under scrutiny
for Chinese manufacturing contamination)
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- Dennis Quaid is here in Santa Fe to film Legion. We were
horrified to learn what happened to his twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace,
who were last November accidentally given 1,000 times the common dosage
of the blood thinner, Heparin; this drug is already under scrutiny because
of contamination presumably in the manufacturing process in China. According
to an article and photos in the New York Times, this heparin manufacturing
process involves grinding up pig intestines in family kitchens/ factories
that seem ordinary for China, but which would seem monstrously filthy
in most nations.
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- These Quaid twins were conceived with a surrogate mother
and are wonderful little blue-eyed bundles of joy already.
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- Cedars of Sinai Hospital officials denied that any of
the victims suffered any ill effects. Chief Medical Officer, Michael Langberg
confirmed that three patients received vials containing 10,000 units per
milliliter of heparin, instead of vials with a concentration of 10 units
per milliliter. The patients were receiving intravenous medications and
the heparin was used to flush the catheters to prevent clotting.
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- Once the hospital staff realized the error, they tested
to measure the patients' blood clotting function. One test was normal,
but the other two were given another drug, protamine sulfate, that reverses
the effects of heparin. Further tests "indicated no adverse effects
from the higher concentration of heparin," Langberg said. Heparin
is used to treat and prevent blood clots in the veins or arteries and comes
in different concentrations; too much can be deadly.
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- Last year, three premature infants at an Indiana hospital
died after a pharmacy technician mistakenly stocked the medicine cabinet
with heparin vials containing a dose 1,000 times stronger than what the
babies were supposed to receive. Three others also suffered overdoses but
survived. Quaid and his wife, Kimberley Buffington, are the biological
parents of the twins, who were born Nov. 8 to a surrogate mother."God
has definitely blessed us," the couple said in a statement announcing
their birth. Quaid, 53, has a 15-year-old son, Jack Henry Quaid, from
his marriage to Meg Ryan. His credits include "Great Balls of Fire!"
"Any Given Sunday" "The Big Easy" and "Far From
Heaven."
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- This nightmarish story is of great concern to me, given
my deep focus on consumer protection, especially getting aspartame taken
off the market by getting its FDA and other regulatory approval rescinded.
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- Two week old children should not be administered such
risky drugs in the first place. Quaid and his wife are correct to be suing
the manufacturer because of the shoddy labeling on each vial, although
the $50,000 they are asking for seems like chump change for what sort
of terror as parents they had to have gone through; Quaid told me that
he is very keen on getting them to standardize their labeling all over
the world, so this won't happen again. Baxter Health Care stated that:
"this is not a product issue. The issue here is about improper use
of a product."
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- In a prepared statement, the hospital said a pharmacy
technician took the heparin from the pharmacy's supply without having
a second technician verify the drug's concentration, as hospital policy
requires. Then, when the heparin was delivered to a satellite pharmacy
that serves the pediatrics unit, a different technician there did not
verify the concentration, as required.
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- Finally, the nurses who administered the heparin to the
patients violated policy by neglecting to verify that it was the correct
medication and dose beforehand, the hospital said. Quaid's suit argues
that the heparin was "unreasonably dangerous" as it was packaged
and sold because both the small and large dosage vials had labels with
blue backgrounds when the vials should have been completely distinguishable
(by) size and shape. He can wait up to eight years to sue Cedars Sinai,
which is warranted, given the developmental damage that might have occurred
with the heparin overdose, which hopefully will not materialize during
the next seven 12 years.
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- Quaid told me out of their concern for other potential
vicitms of heparin, especially children, that he and his wife Kimberley
will be addressing a Congressional hearing in the near future on this
matter, and is even more concerned that the United States Supreme Court
does not extend its immunity blanket to drug manufacturers in a decision
expected this summer. "The Supremes" have already given blanket
immunity to medical device manufacturers, and of course extending this
to Big Pharma becomes an obscene and brazen gift from the Bushie Neocons-doing-business-as-the-US
Supreme Court to some of the biggest corporate monsters in America.
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- Mike Adams of Newstarget.com, one of the sharpest and
most astute alternative health commentators in the USA, decried this situation
in a great column and recent post as no less than the veritable end of
our nation as we know it, if the Supremes hand the "get-out-of-being-sued"
card to Big Pharma. Let's hope that Mr Quaid and his wife can add momentum
and some celebrity impact to this discussion when they appear before
Congress, and let's hope that some of the venerable Supreme Court Justices
might just happen to be listening!
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- http://www.prlog.org/10066765-congress-and-supreme-court-listen-to-
what- dennis-quaid-has-to-say-about-big-pharma-abuses.html
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