Dennis Quaid while addressing the National Press club on Monday revealed how medical errors go unnoticed, unlike airline errors that come under public glare. A plan crash draws a huge amount of attention, following which people will only fly with the airline if and only if they feel safe.

On the other hand, when a hospital makes a mistake, there are high chances that it will remain oblivious to the public. It is estimated that every year 100,000 Americans die because of medical errors. But, since these deaths are spread over thousands of hospitals, it does not get the same attention a plane crash would get.

Quaid was speaking from personal experience. In November, 2007, Quad’s 10 day old twins were twice given an adult dose of the blood thinner heparin. This overdose led them to bleed internally and externally. This horrendous error occurred at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The twins were lucky and survived. But there were other babies who did not survive the onslaught of an adult dose heparin. Three babies died in Indianapolis a year before Quaid’s children went through the trauma.

This experienced has pushed Quaid into becoming a self-professed front man for a crusade to improve patient care. He advocates the implementation of safe practices and the use of technologies such as bar codes to match medications to patients.