Last week, Alex Kuczynski (40), the author of "Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery," announced she and her billionaire husband, Charles Stevenson, were giving birth using her egg, his sperm and another woman’s uterus. Apparently Alex knows a lot about being shallow. Now comes word that social swan/Vogue editrix Lauren Davis , 31, wants to rent a womb as well. Davis, who just married Colombian billion-heir Andres Santo Domingo, told friends she’s looking for a "gestational carrier." That takes care of those pesky stretch marks, morning sickness and labor pains. It seems having a "gestational carrier" is how rich people have children these days. Dennis Quaid and Kimberly Buffington, who were recently involved in a heparin overdose scandal, had their twins with the help of a "gestational carrier." It seems the bonding process may be short circuited when the actual pregnancy and birth process are not experienced.

Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly Buffington were out shopping with a Christmas cup of Starbucks coffee in hand. They looked like they are in good spirits, especially now that their twins are in stable condition following the Heparin (an anti-coagulant) overdoes that could have killed them, or injured them both for life.

When HG first reported on the Dennis Quaid twins being overdosed on Heparin, I wrote that more than 10 years ago hospitals stopped using Heparin to flush IVs, and started using normal saline. I also said the hospital in this case needed to change their policy. Well, they did, and now the hospital is using normal saline FINALLY. Maybe someone at the hospital reads HG, or maybe they just realized a huge lawsuit was not worth continuing to live in the danger zone. People reports:

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center – the facility which treated Dennis Quaid’s twins when they were mistakenly overdosed with Heparin – announced several changes to hospital policy Tuesday.

"Although this was a rare event, and attributable to human error, it is also an important opportunity for the entire institution to explore any and all ways we can further improve medication safety," the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Michael L. Langberg, said in the statement.

Among the key changes, the hospital will flush catheters in the pediatric unit with saline solution, not the anti-coagulant Heparin. Quaid’s twins, Boone and Zoe, were among the three patients overdosed when their catheters were accidentally flushed with a solution containing 10,000 units per milliliter of Heparin, not the usual 10 units per milliliter.

The hospital has also beefed internal training on the use of "high-alert" medications. Furthermore, all employees involved in the incident were suspended.

"The individuals involved in this incident were immediately relieved of duty pending investigation," said the statement, "and appropriate disciplinary actions are being taken."

It’s about time, but even though the hospital is flushing now with normal saline in pediatric, and I’m assuming in the infant/neonatal unit as well, they need to flush with normal saline everywhere in the hospital. This a half step forward. It’s not enough. If you know anyone at the Cedars-Sinai, tell them to read the HG article here, and make the appropriate changes.

Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly are suing the manufacturer of Heparin, a drug of which the couple’s newborn twins were administered an overdose last month.

According to a lawsuit filed Dec. 4 in Cook County (Chicago) Circuit court, the Quaids are suing Baxter Health Care Corporation, the company responsible for manufacturing and distributing Heparin.

The court papers claim that since the 10-unit vial and the 10,000-unit vials of the drug look the same.

Both, the papers say, "had a blue background color to its label. This fact made them more difficult to distinguish than if they had different background colors."

The Quaid twins were given a Heparin flush to clear out their IV tubes on Nov. 18 at Cedars-Sinai hospital, where they remained after their Nov. 8 birth.

"Instead of receiving the prescribed medication," the lawsuit reads, "a medical error was made by personnel of Cedars-Sinai Hospital and 10,000 units/ml of Heparin were administered instead."

As a result of an accidental overdose, the papers claim, twins "ZOE GRACE QUAID and THOMAS BOONE QUAID, suffered and will continue to suffer injuries of a pecuniary nature."

The couple is seeking $50,000 in damages.

The Quaids should also be suing the hospital. The nurse who gave the medication is 100% responsible for not looking at the number on the bottle to be sure he/she gave the right amount of medication. What’s more alarming is the fact that hospitals are not even supposed to be using Heparin to flush IV lines, especially on infant and pediatric units, but should be using normal saline instead. The person responsible for the overdose was the nurse, and according to initial reports the nurse also overdosed thirteen other infants at the same time.

Even someone who is not a nurse can clearly see the bottles have different colored labels, tops, writing on the label, and there’s a big difference between 10,000 and 10. The nurse was lazy, and he/she needs to pay for that mistake. Baxter should also consider making the 10,000 unit Heparin vial red. The hospital should implement a normal saline only IV flush policy like most other hospitals did more than 10 years ago.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer, Michael L. Langberg, MD, apologized to families, and to Dennis Quaid, for the grossly negligent accidental overdose of the blood thinner heparin given to his twin infants, and reportedly thirteen other infants in less than twenty four hours. Dr. Langberg said the error was "preventable" and involved "a failure to follow our standard policies and procedures." He said "there is no excuse for that to occur at Cedars-Sinai." Dr. Langberg went on to say after giving "two patients" protamine sulfate, they "indicated no adverse effects from the higher concentration of heparin or from the temporary abnormal clotting function. Doctors continue to monitor the patients." It’s a good thing they caught the error quickly.

Click here to read my full assessment of why this should never have happened. Heads are going to roll over this, and if they don’t there needs to be an outside investigation of the hospital by the State of California. Arnold only needs to make one phone call.

Click the link below to read Dr. Langberg’s entire statement.

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