CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The case of 14 babies who received accidental overdoses while in intensive care has raised new questions on how a common blood-thinning drug 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 if turned a certain way.
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 hospital's neonatal intensive-care unit July 4.
Two of the babies involved - twins born one month premature - have died, although the hospital said its physicians had 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 may also have received too much heparin, but they showed no ill effects.
Nurses discovered the error Sunday and immediately gave the hospitalized infants a drug to counter the effects.
At a news conference yesterday, the grandmother of the children who died said the family was devastated as it prepared to hold funerals for the babies today, the same day relatives had planned a baby shower for their mother.
"We want answers," Maggie Chapa said.
A patient-safety expert said hospitals were often slow to change.
"It is frustrating to people that we have had other heparin issues," said Diane Pinakiewicz, president of the National Patient Safety Foundation.
