CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The case of 14 babies who received accidental overdoses while in intensive care has raised questions about how a common blood-thinning medication could be given to infants repeatedly in the wrong dosage.
Unlike a previous case involving the twins of actor Dennis Quaid, the Texas newborns got the overdose because of an error at the hospital pharmacy, not a labeling problem.
Quaid sued one of heparin’s manufacturers last year after his children’s overdose was traced to a hospital pharmacy worker who grabbed vials of the wrong dosage because the labels looked almost identical.
In Corpus Christi, pharmacy workers at Christus Spohn Hospital South made what the hospital called a “mixing error.” The two workers went on voluntary leave.
The heparin, 100 times stronger than recommended, was given to 14 infants in the neonatal intensive-care unit July 4.
Two of the babies involved — twins who were born one month prematurely — have died, although the hospital said its physicians have found no direct links to the overdose. Autopsies are being performed.
In addition to the 14 infants, three other babies who were discharged shortly after the overdoses might also have received too much heparin, but they showed no ill effects.
Nurses discovered the error last Sunday and immediately gave the hospitalized infants a drug to counteract the effects.
At a news conference Friday, the grandmother of the children who died said the family was devastated as it prepared to hold a funeral Saturday, the same day relatives had planned a baby shower for the mother.
“We want answers,” Maggie Chapa said.
