Quaid recalls twins' hospital horror

LOS ANGELES, March 14 (UPI) -- Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid is trying to raise awareness about hospital mistakes after one nearly cost his newborn twins their lives.

Quaid and his wife Kimberly gave "60 Minutes" a detailed account of what happened when their babies were mistakenly given the blood thinner heparin, instead of Hep-tock, which is used for pediatric patients, CBS.com said.

The Quaids' children, who were hospitalized last year for a suspected infection, began hemorrhaging after they were given the wrong drug.

"Our kids are bleeding from everyplace that they've punctured …They were working on (our son) Boone, whose belly button would not stop bleeding…blood squirted across the room…. It was blood everywhere," Quaid said. "It was a life-and-death situation."

The hospital recognized the error and corrected it.

The children appear to have since made a full recovery, Quaid has previously said.

"(Mistakes) happen in every hospital in every state in this country and … I've come to find out, there's 100,000 people a year killed... in hospitals by medical mistakes," Quaid said in the interview to air Sunday. "It's bigger than AIDS. It's bigger than breast cancer. It's bigger than automobile accidents and yet, no one seems to be really aware of the problem."