Yesterday, Dennis Quaid testified before Congress regarding the injuries his twins suffered due to the negligence of a prescription drug manufacturer.  You can watch the video on our website, www.gminjurylaw.com. 

In November, Quaid's 12-day-old twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were undergoing intravenous antibiotic treatment for a staph infection at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Hospital. According to standard procedure, nurses were supposed to clean the infants' IV lines with Hep-Lock, a drug containing a very small dose of the blood thinner heparin, to allow the lines to flow freely.

However, instead of the 10 units of heparin they were supposed to receive, the twins received 10,000 units, 1,000 times the prescribed amount. The babies survived, apparently with no permanent injury, Quaid told members of Congress, although no one knows whether they will show any long-term effects.

The actor grew emotional as he recalled a 41-hour ordeal in which his infants' blood was the consistency of water and their bodies bore bruises from internal bleeding.

"It made me feel that they had survived for a reason ... that maybe they were going to change the world in a little way," he said.

In researching the incident, Quaid told lawmakers he found that the bottles of 10-unit Hep-Lock and 10,000-unit heparin were "virtually indistinguishable." Both drugs are manufactured by Baxter Healthcare.

In several lawsuits pending against Allstate, including one in Lexington, Kentucky, plaintiffs have asked for documents regarding Allstate's claims practices and handling, among other areas.  Allstate refused to turn over the documents.  Today, a Florida Court of Appeals held that Florida's insurance regulators could stop Allstate from writing insurance in Florida until it complies with the subpoenas.  After the court's ruling, Allstate released the documents. 

Allstate hired a consulting firm, McKinsey & Co. to overhaul its claims-handling process.  These documents are referred to as "The McKinsey documents."  They are now available for public viewing at http://media.allstate.com/ categories/52/releases/4390.  

Allstate Corp. on Friday released thousands of documents that have been cited by trial lawyers across the country, including in Kentucky, as a blueprint for fraud.

The release came the same day that an appeals court in Florida ruled that the state's insurance regulators can stop Allstate's companies from writing new policies in the state until it complies with subpoenas for documents.

Included in those subpoenas were the now-released "McKinsey & Co." documents, prepared by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm to help Allstate overhaul the way it handled claims.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation suspended Allstate from writing new policies in January because it did not supply pricing information requested in an earlier subpoena.

Yesterday, a woman died as a result of injuries she sustained from being struck by a vehicle in Jeffersontown.  A pedestrian, Amelia Lopez, was hit by a car and thrown approximately 200 feet and landed in the middle of the road.  The driver of the vehicle fled the scene.  Police are investigating this accident and need information on the driver.  If you have any information on the hit-and-run driver, please contact the police immediately. 

Jeffersontown Police tell us 64-year-old Amelia Lopez was found in the middle of the road near the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Six Mile Lane about 1:45 a.m. The driver of the car that hit her left the scene.

According to police, the impact threw Lopez nearly 200 feet. She was taken to the hospital but later died from her injuries.