Newsweek has a new feature called “My Favorite Mistake” with first person accounts of semi-confessional “mistakes” by celebrities and public figures. I’ve found other pieces by Ted Danson, Harvey Weinstein, and James Carville detailing their mistakes and in the latest issue Dennis Quaid reveals his “greatest,” not necessarily his “favorite” mistake, a cocaine addiction that helped fell his career at the peak of his popularity in the late 80s. Quaid stars in the new film about the true story of a young surfer who lost her arm to a shark attack, Soul Surfer. It came out in theaters last Friday. Here’s some of Quaid’s story:

On how cocaine was everywhere in the 80s
My greatest mistake was being addicted to cocaine. I started after I left college and came to Los Angeles in 1974. It was very casual at first. That’s what people were doing when they were at parties. Cocaine was even in the budgets of movies, thinly disguised. It was petty cash, you know? It was supplied, basically, on movie sets because everyone was doing it. People would make deals. Instead of having a cocktail, you’d have a line. So it was insidious, the way it snuck up on everybody.

On his routine as a cocaine addict
By the time I was doing The Big Easy, in the late 1980s, I was a mess. I was getting an hour of sleep a night. I had a reputation for being a “bad boy,” which seemed like a good thing, but basically I just had my head stuck up my ass. I’d wake up, snort a line, and swear I wasn’t going to do it again that day. But then 4 o’clock rolled around, and I’d be right back down the same road like a little squirrel on one of those treadmills. The lack of sleep made it so my focus wasn’t really there, which affected my acting. Addiction just keeps you from living; you’re basically hiding from life.

On what he learned from rehab
I had a band then, called the Eclectics. One night we played a show at the China Club in L.A., and the band broke up, just like in the movie The Commitments, because it all got too crazy. I had one of those white-light experiences that night where I kind of realized I was going to be dead in five years if I didn’t change my ways. The next day I was in rehab.

It was one of those times when you think, “Well, if I do the right thing and clean up my life, it’ll get better.” No, it got worse! In 1990 I did Wilder Napalm, which came out and went down the tubes. But that time in my life—those years in the ’90s recovering—actually chiseled me into a person. It gave me the resolve and a resilience to persevere in life. If I hadn’t gone through that period, I don’t know if I’d still be acting. In the end, it taught me humility. I really learned to appreciate what I have in this life.

[From Newsweek]

The last I heard about Quaid he was helping raise awareness of fatal medical mistakes after his newborn twins nearly died in November, 2007 when a nurse gave them an overdose of Heparin from a poorly labeled bottle. (Here’s more background on that incident and the measures that Quaid took as a result. He successfully sued the hospital and is currently suing the manufacturer of the drug.) Quaids twins are well and thriving at three and a half, although it was touch and go with them for a while.

That movie the Quaid says was his sort-of first “sober” film, Wilder Napalm, came out in 1993 according to IMDB and he has no credits listed to his name from 1990 – 1993. He’s worked steadily since but not in many high profile films and not in many movies that I’ve seen. Like I remember him in The Big Easy (1986), Great Balls of Fire (1989), Far From Heaven (2002) and In Good Company (2004). I’ve probably seen some of his other movies in his recent career but they didn’t stay with me. So he’s not the big movie star he was in the late 80s when he was staying up all night doing blow, but would he have inevitably fallen from grace anyway? He’s probably asked himself that question countless times.

You also wonder if any producers are sweating it after Quaid’s claims that cocaine was everywhere on set. Were they all doing lines on the set of The Right Stuff (1983)? Probably.

He may be back on track now but he’s not sober. I’ve seen plenty of photos and video of him out partying recently.

Dennis Quaid is shown performing with his band on 11/4/10. He’s shown in the header with his wife on 5/19/10. Credit: WENN.com

Dennis Quaid has returned (with Oprah) to the hospital where his twins were given an overdose of Heparin, a blood thinner. The babies, Thomas and Zoe, were 12 days old when they were admitted to hospital for a staph infection. They were accidentally given the wrong dose of Heparin, as the containers have small writing and similar blue lables.

Dennis has campaigned and litigated over this important issue, suing both the hospital and the drug company for failing to change the labels after a similar incident resulted in the death of three newborns in Indiana over a year before his children were injured. The Quaid children have no detectable lasting effects from the Heparin, but could easily have been killed:

In February 2009, Dennis returned to Cedars-Sinai for the first time since his twins were sent home. “Being here brings back a lot of memories…not all of them good,” he says. “But today, I feel like it’s a day to really go forward.”

Dennis meets Linda Burnes Bolton, the chief nursing officer who was called in the night his twins were given an overdose of Heparin. Linda says that night was life-changing for the nursing staff. “It was a wake-up call,” she says. “It served as a catalyst to find ways to prevent those errors.”

Cedars-Sinai has invested more than $100 million in new technology to make sure this kind of mistake never happens again. They’ve installed a computer bar code system for their medications, which helps to eliminate human error. Dr. Oz compares this technology to grocery store scanners.

Patient information must also be entered into a computer and is then checked multiple times. These computers are linked to automatic dispensing machines. “The key to this is that it dispenses only that dose that’s ordered,” Linda says.

Dennis says he applauds Cedars-Sinai for stepping up to the plate. “They spent a substantial amount of money, and they were very concerned about alleviating this [problem],” he says. “I think they really are up at the top now as far as raising the standard of care.”

Oprah.com

Dr Oz, Oprah’s resident show doctor, appears on the episode with the Quaids and talks about ‘how to be a smart patient’ including simple ways of lessening the risk of bacteria, how to choose a hospital and how to speak to your doctor. The best bit of advice he gives, in my opinion, is to not be embarrassed or afraid to ask questions. He also suggests that when you’re getting surgery on, say, your right arm, write OPERATE HERE on your arm to ensure they don’t chose the wrong one.

Photos thanks to Oprah.com

Dennis Quaid has accepted a $750,000 settlement from Cedars Sinai medical center over the horrific medical error that almost killed his newborn twins last November. At 12 days old, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace were brought to the hospital with staph infections. They were mistakenly given a massive 10,000 units of Heparin, a blood thinner used to flush out IV lines, two separate times. The twins were supposed to be given just 10 units. The packaging for the vials that contain the 10 and 10,000 units of Heparin are hard to tell apart as both are colored in shades of blue and have small writing.

The error was detected at the hospital at 9pm at night, at which point the babies were given blood clotting drugs to counteract the Heparin. No one from the hospital notified the Quaids that their twins were in grave condition until the next day, however.

Three babies were killed in an Indiana hospital from the exact same medical error over a year prior to this incident and yet the manufacturer of the drug, Baxter Healthcare Corp, never changed the packaging of Heparin. Quaid is also suing Baxter for their gross error in failing to change the packaging.

Quaid and his wife Kimberley were on 60 minutes this March to talk about the ordeal they went through almost losing their babies. The twins were were born by a surrogate using his sperm and his wife’s eggs after Kimberly suffered five miscarriages. Quaid came across as both passionate and committed to ensuring that future medical errors are prevented. He has since founded The Quaid Foundation, with a mission to bring awareness to preventable medical errors. Quaid also testified in front of Congress this Spring to urge them not to support a measure by the drug companies that would make them immune from lawsuits.

Many people hear about litigation and roll their eyes, but in my opinion Quaid absolutely did the right thing in this case. If no one sued the drug companies or hospitals for mistakes, how would they be held accountable for them? It’s not a perfect way to address it by any means, but it does provide some kind of check to a very flawed system.

Dennis Quaid’s twins are healthy and thriving at 13 months old. According to the 60 minutes report this Spring, they have passed all medical tests and do not seem to have suffered lasting results from the overdose.

[Some of the wording in the introduction is from an earlier article we wrote about this case.]

Dennis Quaid is shown outside The Late Show on 10/8/08. His twins are shown outside a hotel in Berlin with their nanny on 8/4/08. Credit: WENN. Dennis and Kimberley Quaid are shown out in Florence, Italy on 8/31/08

Meg Ryan’s ex husband is pissed that she dug up all the old dirt surrounding their eight year old divorce in order to promote her new film. Ryan claimed that Dennis Quaid “was not faithful to me for a very long time,” but that she “found out more about that after I was divorced.” Ryan’s divorce from Quaid was often blamed in the press on her relationship with her Proof of Life co-star Russell Crowe, although as many of you pointed out there were rumors of Quaid cheating on Ryan for some time.

Now Quaid is saying that he’s amazed Ryan is still talking about all that and that he finds it hurtful to their son Jack, 16. Quaid says he’s moved on from their divorce and suggests that Ryan is still focusing on the past. He doesn’t exactly deny Ryan’s claims in his statement about it and just harps on the fact that she shouldn’t have said it:

Now Quaid is returning fire.

“It was eight years ago, and I find it unbelievable that Meg continues publicly to rehash and rewrite the story of our relationship,” the actor tells us exclusively. “Also, I find it regrettable that our son, Jack, has to be reminded in a public way of the turmoil and pain that every child feels in a divorce.”

Quaid, who went on to marry real estate agent Kimberly Buffington and have twins last November, adds: “I, myself, moved on years ago and am fortunate to have a happy, beautiful family.”

Meg’s discussion of their marriage has prompted others to fill in some gaps. One source tells us that, under their divorce pact, Quaid’s custody and visitation rights hinged on his sobriety. “Meg came to believe he was drinking again and wanted full physical custody of Jack,” says the source.

Quaid maintains: “Meg and I have always had joint custody of Jack without any stipulations whatsoever.”

[From The NY Daily News]

The News goes on to say that they have sources that state that Meg Ryan’s much talked about trout pout is the result of removing fat from her butt and having it injected into her lips. They also add the detail that Ryan cut her agent’s percentage on her 1999 film On The Ropes from 10% to just 5% of anything she made over $2 million. Do you think Quaid gave those other details to the Daily News in order to make sure he made his ex wife look bad? Both stories are about things that happened before the divorce.

Dennis Quaid is shown at the premiere of “The Express” on 9/25/08. Meg Ryan is shown at the premiere of “The Women” on 9/11/08. Credit: PRPhotos

Meg Ryan’s adulterous relationship with co-star Russell Crowe was big news back in 2000. She broke up with her then-husband Dennis Quaid after nine years of marriage and it was widely believed at the time that her relationship with Crowe hastened the end of her marriage. Ryan has put rest those rumors, saying that it was her husband who was unfaithful first and that he cheated on her for years before she found solace in the buff arms of her Aussie co-star. She also admitted that she ended the relationship with Crowe, as was rumored at the time, because she couldn’t handle another serious relationship. Ryan doesn’t care that she was called a cheater, though, because she says she was finally “free” and she found it “liberating.”

In 2000, Ryan, now 46, famously had a fling with her Proof of Life co-star Russell Crowe; the affair ended her marriage to Quaid (with whom she has a son, Jack, 16).

But she tells the new issue of InStyle (excerpted by Entertainment Tonight), “Dennis was not faithful to me for a very long time, and that was very painful.

“I found out more about that after I was divorced,” she adds.

Of Crowe, she says: “I think he took a big hit. But Russell didn’t break up the marriage. He was definitely there at the end, but it wasn’t his fault. I was a mess. I hurt him too at the end. I couldn’t be in another long relationship, it wasn’t the time for that. So I got out.”

She continues, “My time as a scarlet woman was really interesting. As painful as it was, it was also incredible liberating. Now I was utterly free. I didn’t have to care about what people thought.”

She also says being dubbed “America’s Sweetheart” was stifling at the time.

“It’s an old-fashioned idea, so anachronistic. I understood it was a compliment about being lovable, and it felt nice … but it also felt, after a time, like ideas were being projected onto me that had nothing to do with me,” she says.

“The girl next door to what?” she continues. “I never felt like a very conventional person.”

[From US Weekly]

The way Ryan words this is odd. She says Quaid cheated on her, but she kind of implies she didn’t really know about it until after the divorce. Maybe that’s why she kept quiet about it for so long. She deserves some credit for keeping her silence about it. She got branded a cheater, but her husband was doing the same thing to her and she didn’t tell the press until eight years later.

Ryan’s film The Women is number 7 at the US box office after two weeks and has taken in $20 million. It’s not a very strong showing for the film, and it’s also received very bad reviews, with an only 10% aggregate critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s as good a time to bring up a cheating ex husband as any.

Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe are shown below on 7/12/00, credit: WENN. She is shown with Dennis Quaid in 1998 via TVGuide.com. Meg Ryan is shown in the header on 9/11/08, credit: PRPhotos.

Several celebrities have visited Capital Hill in the past two weeks to testify and represent causes. In many cases the celebrities went through tragedy and adversity and became committed and knowledgeable about issues that personally affected them. In other cases they became involved with specific causes they feel passionate about. Either way, they’re bringing attention to important issues and making a difference. I’d rather see a celebrity testifying in front of a committee than shopping, eating out, or worse getting a DUI, but unfortunately the latter get a lot more attention.

5/21/08: Breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow testifies in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee to support a bill funding breast cancer research. Crow emphasized that she has no family history of breast cancer, and said “I want to know what causes this disease. We need to put more resources into figuring out what the environment has to do with breast cancer.” [Paraphrased from Houston Chronicle. You can view Crow's testimony as a Real Media file thanks to C-Span.org]

5/21/08: Michael Douglas meets with Indiana Senator Richard Lugar at The Capitol to urge him to prevent the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as a director of the Ploughshares Fund organization [Description verbatim from WENN]

5/20/08: United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) goodwill ambassador Geri Halliwell and Care ambassador Christy Turlington hold a rally and press conference with congresswomen and fistula survivors. They urged support of a new bill promoting maternal health throughout the world. [Details paraphrased from Baltimore Sun]

5/14/08: Ed Norton testifies in front of the The House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. He is a trustee of Enterprise Community Partners, which was founded by his grandfather and builds affordable homes using green building practices for low income families. He said “The legacy of my generation is going to hinge on how we respond to these revelations that we’re not living sustainably, and that we’re altering the environment.” [Quote and details paraphrased from Peopletreefilms. Video is available on Globalwarming.house.gov - scroll to the last video in the list]

5/14/08: Dennis Quaid testifies in front of the House Reform and Government Oversight Committee urging Congress not to support a measure by the drug companies that would make them immune from lawsuits. He is suing company Baxter Healthcare Corp after a known second preventable mixup in which his newborn twins almost died after being given 1,000 times the dosage of Heparin, a blood thinner. Batches of Heparin have since been recalled for an unrelated incident in which the drug became tainted at a manufacturing plant in China, resulting in 19 known deaths. Dennis Quaid’s twins are healthy at five and a half months old, and are not thought to suffer lasting effects from the near-fatal overdose. [Details paraphrased from MSNBC. Quaid's testimony is available on House.gov as a PDF file and the video is available as a Real Media file from C-span.org]

5/8/08: Cancer survivor, founder of a cancer advocacy nonprofit organization, and seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, testifies in front of The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Cancer: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century. [From Senate.gov, where there's also a video of Lance's testimony]

Thanks to WENN for these photos.

A preventable error
Dennis and Kimberly’s twins were born by surrogate on November 8, 2007 using Kimberly’s eggs and Dennis’ sperm, a choice the couple made after Kimberly suffered five miscarriages. At 12 days, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace were brought to the hospital with possible staph infections. They were almost killed when they were mistakenly given 10,000 units of Heparin, a blood thinner used to flush out IV lines, two separate times. The twins were supposed to be given just 10 units. The packaging for the vials that contain the 10 and 10,000 units of Heparin are hard to tell apart as both are colored in shades of blue and have small writing.

A Mother’s premonition
Kimberly said she had a mother’s premonition at 9:00 pm the night of the error that something was wrong, and she even wrote it down and the note was shown on 60 Minutes. She said “I just had this horrible feeling come over me, and I felt like the babies were passing. I just had this feeling of dread.”

They then called the hospital and were told that everything was fine, even though the nurses had realized that the babies were in danger around that time. It wasn’t until the next morning that the Quaids learned what happened when they went to visit their twins. They were met at the hospital room by a nurse, their pediatrician and a representative from risk management, which protects the hospital’s legal interests.

Four months later, the babies are fine
The twins are now living at home at four months old and are fine and have passed all medical tests, but it was touch and go for a while. They had to be kept in the hospital for over a month afterwards. Quaid said that when he visited them the next day he saw blood squirt from his son’s belly button 6 feet across the room and onto the wall. He says that he’s grateful for every day now and doesn’t take a day for granted. He said “If they hadn’t made it, there never would have been another happy day.”

Dennis Quaid’s quest
After Quaid’s ordeal, he started researching preventable medical errors to try and make sense of what happened. Quaid said that 100,000 people are killed every year in hospitals due to medical mistakes, and that “it’s bigger than AIDS… breast cancer… and automobile accidents” but that “no one seems to really be aware of the problem.”

The twin’s pediatrician was the first one to tell Quaid that three babies had died in Indiana from the same mistaken dosage of blood thinner that nearly killed his newborn twins. Quaid said it sent a chill down his spine.

Drugs were not recalled
Baxter International, the company that manufactures Heparin, did repackage the adult dose of Heparin with a bright red label after the incident in Indiana, but they failed to recall the existing stocks of the drug, some of which were given to the Quaid twins. The Quaids are now suing Baxter for not recalling the drug.

60 Minutes interviewed a representative from Baxter, who said they were not at fault for not recalling the drug because it was safe and that human error was to blame. A representative for Cedars Sinai acknowledged that the twins’ overdose was the result of a preventable error.

All stocks of Heparin have since been recalled, but it has nothing to do with the confusing labels. There was “possible contamination at a Chinese manufacturing facility that may have contributed to at least 19 deaths.”

Here is a clip of the part of the interview where the babies are shown, along with the full interview in two parts. Thanks to Redlasso.

Highlight of the babies:

Part 1 of Dennis and Kimberly Quaid on 60 Minutes

Part 2 of Dennis and Kimberly Quaid on 60 Minutes

Dennis Quaid has come out swinging, heavily criticizing the hospital that treated his newborn twins and gave them an incorrect dose of heparin. Heparin is a blood thinner, that was supplied to the hospital by manufacturer’s Baxter Healthcare Corp. Quaid is currently suing the makers of the drug for having all the different sized doses of heparin, for adults and children, packaged in similar containers. The similar containers confused staff at the Cedars Sinai Medical Centre, who then gave the wrong dose to the babies.

Thomas and Zoe were hospitalized a few days after birth because of an infection around their navels, where they were then given intravenous antibiotics to fight the infection. Blood thinners were also given to prevent clots blocking the IV line.

On November 18 two doses of heparin were given to the babies over the course of the day, while both parents were with them. They went home to rest, and called the hospital at 9pm to check with the nurses. The Quaids say they were told the babies were fine, but in fact they weren’t. They had been given an adult dosage of heparin and were beginning to ooze blood.

The Quaids were not told of the crisis until 6:30am the next morning, when they were met at the door by the hospitals risk management assessor, a nurse and a pediatrician.

Dennis on the hospital not telling them of the crisis until the next day:
“Our kids could have been dying, and we wouldn’t have been able to come down to the hospital to say goodbye,”

On the twins hospitalization:
“They were in incubators with cords attached to them and monitors, and you could barely hold them,” said Kimberly Quaid, 36. “Every time you’d move them, the alarms would sound. . . . The stress was overwhelming.”

“When you go into a hospital, you become like a child, like an infant in a way,” Dennis Quaid said. “The names of the drugs, we can’t even pronounce. . . . We put complete trust, and we are so vulnerable like a child, innocent and vulnerable in a hospital situation.”

On the twins recovery:
“We have our babies back, and they seem to be doing great, and they’re just a lot of fun to be with,” Dennis Quaid said.
“We really do feel that prayer saved them,” he later said.

The Quaids say that someone at the hospital leaked to the media that Thomas and Zoe were being treated, and the media presence caused additional stress. A hospital spokesperson responded:
Cedars-Sinai spokesman Richard Elbaum declined to comment on most of the allegations made by the Quaids. “Throughout the course of their children’s hospitalization and continuing today, we have reached out to the Quaids to discuss any concerns or questions they have,” he said. “We would like to continue to discuss all of these and any other concerns directly with the Quaids to identify and resolve any questions.”
Elbaum did say the hospital is investigating whether there was a violation of the twins’ privacy rights by leaks to the media. “We take very seriously any allegations of breaches of patient confidentiality and investigate these in a comprehensive manner,” he said.

Los Angeles Times

I can’t imagine anything more distressing than having your new babies taken to hospital, particularly when they had been so hard to produce. Due to Kimberly’s history of miscarriages the Quaids had their babies using a surrogate.

State regulators have found that the mistake occurred after technicians delivered the wrong dose of medication to the pediatric unit. Nurses say they are unsure of whether they read the labels on the vials of heparin. Another child was also overdosed, and made a full recovery.

I’m so happy to hear the babies have made a full recovery. They’re still being monitored for liver and kidney damage but it’s a good sign that none has shown up yet. I hope they’re safe and well.

Dennis Quaid’s two twins seem to be doing ok after they were given a massive overdose of the blood thinner Heparin in a shocking hospital oversight. At first it seemed to be touch and go for the less than two-week-old newborn boy and girl, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, who were given 1,000 times the dosage of Heparin. They were administered medication to counter the effects of the blood thinner after their second dose, and seem to have suffered no immediate ill effects. They will have to be monitored for long term problems including kidney and liver damage, but initial tests indicate that they have recovered. Three premature babies died in an Indiana hospital last year from the same overdose that was given to Dennis Quaid’s babies, so it clearly could have killed them.

The babies were born to a surrogate using Quaid’s sperm and his wife Kimberly’s eggs. Kimberly is just 36 and many of you wondered why she would need to use a surrogate. The National Enquirer is reporting that Kimberly suffered multiple miscarriages before she turned to a surrogate.

Dennis, already a dad with previous wife, actress Meg Ryan, “desperately wanted a child with wife of three years Kimberly Buffington – but she had suffered a number of miscarriages,” revealed a source.

“That’s why they turned to a surrogate and after much searching they found one…”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, December 10, 2007]

Thank goodness those newborns pulled through. When that article went to press the babies were still in the hospital. The latest news has the Quaids optimistic that they’ll be able to take them home for Christmas. That sounds awful to be apart from your newborns for that long. They were actually home with the Quaids when they rushed them to the hospital to be treated for an infection, which is when the overdose happened.

Courteney Cox is also said to have suffered many miscarriages before she was able to conceive Coco. She was eventually diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder antiphospholipid syndrome. (It is worth looking into if you have suffered a pregnancy loss. Often the only symptom is multiple miscarriages. It is easily treated, ironically, with blood thinners and/or low-dose aspirin.)

Dennis and Kimberly are shown at the American Dreamz premiere on 11/4/06, thanks to WENN.

Thanks to commentor StellaPurdy for noting that the gross overdose of the blood thinner Heparin that could have killed or seriously injured Dennis Quaid’s 12-day-old twins is not the first time that premature babies have been put in severe life-threatening danger from that specific medical error. Apparently Heparin is packaged in such a way that makes it very difficult to distinguish between adult and infant doses of the medicine, which look almost identical.

This case is similar to a September, 2006 incident at an Indianapolis hospital in which three premature infants died after given gross overdoses of Heparin:

The baby girl, Thursday Dawn Jeffers, died late Tuesday at Riley Hospital for Children five days after she was born at Methodist Hospital. She had been transferred to Riley once her condition worsened from receiving an adult dose of heparin, a drug routinely given to premature babies…

Two other girls, D’myia Sabrina Nelson and Emmery Miller, both less than a week old, died Saturday at Methodist’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

They were given the drug, which is often used to prevent blood clots that could clog intravenous tubes, after a pharmacy technician accidentally stored adult doses in the neonatal unit’s drug cabinet. Three other babies who also received too-strong doses were still in critical condition because they are premature but were not considered in danger from the overdoses, said Methodist Hospital spokesman Jon Mills.

[From CBSNews thanks to commentor Stellapurdy]

Unlike this sad case in Indiana, there have been no fatalities from this error at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA. Quaid’s twins are listed in stable condition, after being given medication to combat the effects of the heparin.

The Chief Medical Officer at Cedars-Sinai has issued a statement saying that seven patients were given the incorrect dose, and that only two patients, presumed to be Quaid’s twins, were adversely affected. They are said to be fine now:

Additional medical tests and clinical evaluation conducted on the two patients indicated no adverse effects from the higher concentration of heparin or from the temporary abnormal clotting function. Doctors continue to monitor the patients.

[Statement from Cedars-Sinai found on TMZ.com]

Medical errors in which mistaken doses are given and/or in which one package is confused with another that looks similar are common and can be deadly.

In 2005, Duke University hospital surgeons used tainted instruments that had been washed in used hydraulic fluid from the elevators instead of detergent for weeks. A technician had drained the fluid into empty detergent bottles and had placed them by the dumpster, where they were mistaken for detergent and returned to wash instruments. Dozens of patients suffered extreme lasting health problems from the error.