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Dennis Quaid Testifies to U.S. Congress
14-May-2008
Written by: Marshall Burns
Dennis Quaid testified to the U.S. Congress today for his two daughters who were mistreated at a hospital, almost dying as a result.
Today Dennis Quaid testified to the U.S. Congress to urge the preservation of patients’ rights to sue pharmaceutical companies for injuries. He was tearful during his speech when he spoke of his newborn twins who nearly died from accidental drug overdose of heparin with 1,000 times the correct dosage of the blood thinner, according to the Associated Press.
Quaid and his wife have sued the pharmaceutical company, Baxter International Inc., arguing that the product was stored in bottles with confusing labels which may have led to the overdose and should have been recalled after three other infants had died from the same problem, reported Reuters.
The actor wished that the Food and Drug Administration should not only be aware of the mix-up or misuse of drugs, but should also take action before any lawsuits are carried out against the pharmaceutical companies. “I believe if preemption of lawsuits is allowed to prevail, it will basically make all of us, the public, uninformed and uncompensated lab rats,” he said to the Congress, according to Reuters.
“FDA believes that the important decisions it makes about the safety, efficacy and labeling of medical products should not be second-guessed by state courts,” said FDA Deputy Commissioner Randall Lutter, when talking about the preemption argument. Apparently the company said that after learning of the deaths involving heparin in Indianapolis in 2006, they’d informed the FDA and were told to and did distribute a safety alert to clinicians in the U.S. to tell them of the medication error, said the AP.
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