Two years ago, the star’s newborn twins received an overdose of a medication that nearly killed them. Now, Quaid is starting a program to prevent medical errors, reports Starpulse.
In 2007, the actor’s 12-day-old babies, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were left fighting for their lives after they were given a nearly lethal dose of a blood thinner. Apparently, a tired nurse working at the Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center picked up the wrong bottles of heparin and administered the drug.
Hospital authorities ruled that the staff had been negligent in the incident, and ended up paying Quaid and his wife Kimberly $750,000 in damages. Luckily the babies survived the incident. However, the couple has subsequently launched a campaign for better bottle-labeling systems to prevent hospital tragedies across America.
Quaid recently announced that the National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors will send e-mail alerts to an estimated 35,000 pharmacists, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals when a serious or potentially serious error occurs in administering medications.