Who's at fault?

Dennis Quaid is an actor, a pretty good one actually. He and his wife also have newborn twins. While in the hospital, the hospital staff used heparin to flush out the babies' catheters. Nothing unusual there. But what was unusual was the strength of heparin used: 10,000 units/ml instead of 10 units/ml. Yeah, that's not good. Luckily, it appears they were given protamine soon after to reverse the heparin effects, and things came out all right. Here's an article with more info.

However, the story doesn't end there. The Quaid's are suing, but they are not suing the hospital (which took full liability) they are suing the company that supplied the heparin-Baxter. Here's a good video from CNN. Now at first blush, this seems like the typical American use of the legal system: I'm going to SUE you!!! But here's what I think is pretty cool: They are only suing for $50,000. Obviously, they're not doing it for the money-they merely want Baxter to change the problematic packaging (three newborns died in Indianapolis last year with the same mixup) and admit their mistake. I think this is very admirable, and shows the power that publicity has to do good. Maybe I will have to check out The Alamo after all....