Dennis Quaid Sues Over Twins' Near-Fatal Overdose

It was only a matter of time before the other Quaid started making headlines, too.

Sadly, Dennis Quaid's legal raison d'être is exponentially more serious than brother Randy's, as the G.I. Joe star has filed suit against Baxter Healthcare over his twins' near-death experience.

In the negligence suit filed Friday, Quaid fingered the company as the culprit behind the potentially lethal error in dosage given to his now 2-year-old kids, Zoe and Thomas.

View the lawsuit

Here's a refresher: Back on Nov. 18, 2007, the days-old babies came down with staph infections. They were treated with Heparin; however, hospital personnel inadvertently administered 10,000 units of the medication. The infants were only supposed to receive 10.

The twins in turn suffered life-threatening reactions, which, according to the legal papers, "may be permanent in nature and are likely to cause serious complications in the future."

Quaid's suit alleges that Baxter Healthcare, which manufactures and distributes the drug, is to blame for making the dosage information on the packaging confusing. He claims Baxter was negligent not only for allowing the similarly looking labels to be distributed in the first place, but for not recalling them once the company was informed of the potentially fatal errors.

Calling the identical labels a "totally foreseeable and predictable" error, he says Baxter, "knowing of the danger of inadvertent mix-up with the dire consequences that could follow, should have taken other steps to warn and to distinguish each of these drugs."

He is seeking medical expenses, punitive damages and for the company to establish a fund for future medical expenses.

Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, filed suit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last year, and received a $750,000 settlement from the hospital.

Source: eonline