Look, I see it in another way. If I were manufacturing Heparin in 2 different doses, I should as a drug company really make these 2 drugs more distinct to prevent fatal errors. It is not just human error, it is also negligent not to repackage and relabel this products in 2006 when the 3 infants died from overdosing. Yes, sure, the technicians and nurse are liable, but really who are we kidding here? If the drug company thinks that they have no liability here, think again. They manufactured the products whether the color is dark blue or light blue. It is their product, their company therefore they are also liable. When any human fatality happens, we all need to stand together for public safety purposes. The drug companies make billions anyway, changing and relabeling should not take so long for them to do. Why even wait until fall of 2007 to make a change with the red tag? Why send a memo warning in Feb 2006? Help the nurses be more safe, should be every drug company’s motto. After we are all in the business to save lives not kill.

Although I can’t comment about Cedars-Sinai Hospital in LA never having been there and not knowing about the systems that they employ, there are opportunities to improve medication delivery safety.

A large number of hospitals and healthcare facilities have invested in the available automated systems to reduce med errors, or to put a positive spin on it to improve patient safety.

Those facilities that have made the jump and spent the money have seen dramatic reductions in med errors. The wisdom is in putting the patient first over dollars spent. If Cedars hasn’t made the investment, then this is clearly a case where spend the money in favor of patient safety will ultimately have a greater return.

Perhaps the Quaids, if successful in sueing someone, use the money to assure that the correct system is employed at Cedars, a greater good will have been done.

http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2007/Heparin_DHCP_02-06-2007.pdf

I don’t feel pity for the drug company cause I feel that they will still make millions of dollars..lawsuits only maybe hurt a tiny bit of their income. Also, I doubt their lawyer would make such a public statement if they had any doubt they would win.

Thank god the babies are ok. I don’t blame them for wanting to sue, if god forbid my 2 small babies almost died, I would wanna do the same.

I’ve worked in a pharmacy for years and people would NOT believe how similar drug names, dosages, labeling is. It is absolutely imperative that each time a drug is held in a person’s hand they STOP and READ what they are holding. While I know that sounds so obvious, I’ve seen people GLANCE at a drug that is supposed to be put back on the shelf in the same place every time, but that can be a dangerous HABIT to get into (glancing). As the wrong bottle w/ nearly the exact same name and labeling can (and does) end up on the wrong place on the shelf. If you take the same drug off the shelf 100 times in a day you still must STOP and READ that bottle, vial, tube, etc. Twice over. Every time. I realize we are talking about a hospital incident, but the theory is the same.

That is such a frivilous lawsuit. It’s called human error, you want to sue someone, you sue the nurse! Anyone in a medical capacity KNOWS to RECHECK everything! Those labels are different, and regardless, you ALWAYS read the labels! Wrong caps have been put on the wrong bottles a hundred times over which is WHY we have labels!

Nurses are trained to check, check, and recheck EVERYTHING (correct patient at the correct time with the correct medication with the correct dosage, etc.) when it comes to administering medication to infants, and anyone else for that matter. Even though that particular vial should NOT have been placed in the NICU unit, the person who administered the drug should have done their job and triple checked everything. NEVER assume anything when it comes to medication and babies.

Seems to me that the hospital people who work with the meds should pay attention to the medicine they give out.

I understand that the medicine bottles may look almost alike, but the hospital staff should make a point to pay attention to what they give out.

The labels are quite a bit different. The 10,000 u/mL bottles had no business being placed in the NICU or the Pediatric Ward, the most likely places for the infants to have received the overdose. It is every nurse’s responsibility to carefully check each medication before administration. As it was not an emergency situation (not that that would be an excuse) stress and speed of administration were not factors. Bottom line, it was the fault of the hospital staff, who should have checked for the name of the medication, dose, possible tampering with the rubber top, and clarity of the medication before administering it.