Accidental overdose hospitalizes Quaid twins
Accidental overdose
hospitalizes Quaid twins
LOS ANGELES — The newborn twins of Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, were reportedly given an accidental overdose of blood thinner at a hospital. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com said the actor’s children, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were given vials of heparin, used to prevent clotting, that were 1,000 times stronger than what was prescribed. Citing unidentified sources, the site said the children were in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital apologized Tuesday to the families of three patients involved, but said it could not release the names because of confidentiality laws. It said tests indicated that there were no adverse effects on the patients. Cedars-Sinai’s chief medical officer, Michael L. Langberg, said in a statement that on Sunday three patients each received vials containing 10,000 units per milliliter of heparin instead of vials with a concentration of 10 units per milliliter. Once the hospital staff realized the “preventable error,” they did tests to measure the patients’ blood clotting function, Langberg said Tuesday. One patient’s test was normal, but two patients required a drug that reverses the effects of heparin, he said. Further tests on the two “indicated no adverse effects from the higher concentration of heparin,” Langberg said. “Doctors continue to monitor the patients.” Quaid and his wife are the biological parents of the twins, who were born Nov. 8 to a surrogate mother.
Munchkins get a star
LOS ANGELES — Almost 70 years after “The Wizard of Oz” premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a few of the film’s Munchkins made a grand entrance there Tuesday to receive a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Seven of the surviving actors who played the inhabitants of Munchkinland in the 1939 classic attended the ceremony, arriving in a horse-drawn carriage and trailed by a marching band.
A yellow carpet, resembling the film’s yellow brick road, led them to the stage. One tap-danced, and another sang.
“We love you; you have touched our hearts,” former Munchkin Mickey Carroll, 88, told the crowd.
Carroll was joined by former Munchkin colleagues Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe, Karl Slover and Clarence Swensen.
Today’s birthdays
Former Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., is 89. Actor Robert Vaughn is 75. Animator and movie director Terry Gilliam is 67. Tennis player Billie Jean King is 64. Rock musician-actor Steve Van Zandt (aka Little Steven) is 57. Rock musician Tina Weymouth (The Heads; Talking Heads; The Tom Tom Club) is 57. Former baseball player Greg Luzinski is 57. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is 49. Actress Mariel Hemingway is 46. Actor Nicholas Rowe is 41. Tennis player Boris Becker is 40. Actress Scarlett Johansson is 23.