That's an almost unfathomably horrible thing for anyone to have to go through, and yet Dennis Quaid has happily given a televised interview where he recounts the whole awful story from beginning to end. Why would Dennis Quaid subject himself to this? Because he's still furious about the cock-up and claims that medical mistakes are responsible for 100,000 deaths a year in America alone, that's why. 

And also we suspect it's because if Dennis Quaid didn't talk about his children almost dying, he'd have had to talk about Vantage Point instead. He must have gone for the least emotionally-gruelling choice.

Dennis Quaid is a man who knows about trauma. He's starred in a 3D Jaws movie, worked with Lindsay Lohan and spent the best part of decade married to Meg Ryan. If that's not an iron-clad training for battle-worn stoicism in the face of trouble we're really not sure what is.

And it's exactly what Dennis Quaid needed in November when his newborn twins almost died of a massive overdose of the blood-thinning drug Heparin. Without properly reading the dosage on the bottle, a nurse at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center injected Quaid's two-week-old twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace with 10,000 units of an anti-coagulant instead of just 10.

And now Dennis Quaid has been interviewed by 60 Minutes about his experiences and the 100,000 Americans killed by medical mistakes each year, as Reuters reports:

"It's bigger than AIDS. It's bigger than breast cancer. It's bigger than automobile accidents and yet, no one seems to really be aware of the problem." In the Quaids' case, staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near Beverly Hills gave their two-week-old twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, 1,000 times the recommended dose of the blood thinner heparin last November. "It basically turned their blood to the consistency of water, where it had a complete inability to clot. They were basically bleeding out at that point," Quaid said.

Although the babies have now recovered, Dennis Quaid wants to stop this from happening again, which is why he's suing Heparin manufacturer Baxter Healthcare Corp for everything its got, or at least a tiny fraction of it. However, Baxter has queried the fact that Dennis Quaid isn't suing the hospital for employing people who can't tell the difference between 10 and 10,000, especially since the hospital didn't even notify the Quaids of the mistake until word got out to the media.

But still, that's not important because – unless those specific hospital workers are impressively prolific - they're probably not responsible for all 100,000 annual deaths. And misreading medication labels is an exceptionally easy thing to do – this one time we meant to buy a bottle of Calpol SixPlus to chug in pursuit of a legally-available buzz like our dead hero Pimp C, but we accidentally picked up a bottle of Sugar Free Calpol Infant instead.

That was our night shagged, we don't mind telling you.

Read more:

Dennis Quaid recounts twins' near-death experience – Reuters 

Not only do you have to live with the fact that you've wasted a great big portion of your life endorsing the very worst type of music ever invented, but now Van Halen have postponed a load more reunion dates as well.

This is the second batch of shows that Van Halen have ditched this month so far, and it's all because Eddie Van Halen is currently being tested for a mystery medical condition. Sounds serious. We just hope that whatever the condition is, it's important enough to deny thousands of fans the chance to pay an inflated amount of money to see a gang of old men play music that all sounds like the theme-tune to Biker Mice From Mars.

Van Halen has always enjoyed something of a fluid line-up but, among the 400 singers and schoolboy bassists called Wolfgang that have passed through Van Halen's ranks, Eddie Van Halen has always remained the constant of the band.

Sure, Eddie Van Halen may have taken the odd day off to record Michael Jackson's most overrated song or develop a crippling substance abuse problem or two, but he's always been the beating heart of Van Halen. So when Eddie Van Halen contracts a mystery illness and has to go and be tested, that pretty much spells curtains for Van Halen as a band.

Earlier this month Van Halen cancelled a few dates because of Eddie Van Halen's 'issues. At the time we were undecided whether this meant Eddie Van Halen had fallen out with his bandmates for the billionth time in a decade, or whether his ex-wife's autobiography had plunged him back headfirst into a blizzard or booze and drugs, or whether he just has post-traumatic stress disorder from that time his garden got a bit flooded.

But now that a total of 17 Van Halen dates have been disrupted, it's starting to look like Eddie Van Halen might actually have quite a serious medial problem, as Reuters reports:

Rock band Van Halen's reunion tour fell into disarray on Monday when it announced it would postpone all shows through April 19 while guitarist Eddie Van Halen undergoes tests for an unspecified medical condition… According to organizers, Van Halen, 53, who has battled cancer and substance abuse, "is currently under doctors' care" and will "continue medical tests to define a course of treatment." No further details were made available.

Sounds worrying and, although his music makes us want to tear lumps of flesh out of our faces, we still hope that Eddie Van Halen's condition isn't as deadly as it's starting to sound.

Because, seriously, first Patrick Swayze and now Eddie Van Halen? Our 1980s icons are being obliterated. And these things always come in threes, so if we were Steve Guttenberg or Roland Rat we'd be bloody well cacking it at the moment.

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Van Halen scraps more shows amid mystery ailment – Reuters 

The New York City medical examiner has declared that Heath Ledger died from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine,” in a report that's just been released.

As sad as this news is, we should focus on the positives – not only can Heath Ledger's family continue with their lives knowing that at least it wasn't suicide, but Heath Ledger looks set for pub quiz immortality by being the answer to the question "Which celebrity cause of death would get you the highest score in a game of Scrabble?"

Right, that's it. We're never taking any medicine again. Seriously, it's killing people like flies. First Pimp C died because of all the cough mixture he drank and now Heath Ledger has joined the 'accidental overdose' club along with Anna Nicole Smith.

Two weeks after he died, the official medical examiner's report into the cause of Heath Ledger's death has finally been released MSNBC reports:

The cause of death was “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine,” spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a statement. Oxycodone is a painkiller marketed as OxyContin and used in other painkillers such as Percodan and Percocet; hydrocodone is used in a number of painkillers, including Vicodin. Diazepam and alprazolam are the generic names for the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and the other two drugs are sleep aids commonly sold under the brands Restoril and Unisom. Borakove wouldn’t say what concentrations of each drug were found in Ledger’s blood, or whether one drug played a greater part than another in causing his death. “What you’re looking at here is the cumulative effects of these medications together,” she said.

Although the report isn't going to bring Heath Ledger back, it will go some way to hushing the storm of speculation surrounding his untimely death. Although the accidental overdose scenario seemed likely from the outset, there were also conflicting reports suggesting that Heath Ledger died a natural death or that Heath Ledger was so miserable that suicide looked like a genuine option. Throw in a banned video of Heath Ledger at a drugs party and everything got so confused that only an official report could clear things up.

The report into Heath Ledger's cause of death comes as Heath's family prepare for his funeral, so at least all the mysteries and rumours about his death can be laid to rest at the same time that he is. Plus, unlike Pimp C, at least Heath Ledger died before he could perform a gangsta rap all about his love for the thing that killed him called Sipping On Some Alprazizzlam. So at least there's some dignity, however small.

As for us, we're serious about that 'no medicine' thing. In fact, all these celebrity medication deaths have got us quietly freaking out in case the BCG vaccination we had at school over a decade ago suddenly decides to turn evil and finish us off.

Read more:

Heath Ledger died of accidental overdose – MSNBC