Quaid: medical errors kill thousands

Speaking of Carcieri, our governor has been an energetic supporter of what proponents call medical malpractice reform. Yet those who believe the medical system is plagued by unwarranted lawsuits might want to watch a segment aired last night on 60 Minutes, featuring actor Dennis Quaid.

Chances are you probably know someone who has died, or nearly died, because of medical mistakes in a hospital. It's much more common than most people realize, and if it can happen to the children of movie star, at one of the finest hospitals in the country, it can happen to anyone.

Dennis Quaid has starred in more than 50 films, but nothing prepared him for the drama and the near tragedy that unfolded last November at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, when his infant twins were given massive overdoses of a blood thinner that nearly killed them.

When 60 Minutes first broadcast this story in the spring, Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, had kept most of their thoughts and many of the details private. They decided then to talk about what happened, what caused it, and what needs to be done to keep it from happening to somebody else.

"It was the scariest, most frightening day that I think either of us have ever been through, to come face to face with your little kids who - so young in that kinda situation," Quaid tells correspondent Steve Kroft.

Quaid has since established a foundation in an effort to reduce the frequency of medical errors.