Interesting, I've never damaged anyone with a healing potion. Well, I haven't as far as I could tell. I know the potion itself takes damage, as a number pops up. But, I've never been able to rectify this with damage done to potion, healing provided, and the current hit points of the target.
Successfuly throwing an item at someone will do damage to that person. As potion weights little, the damage is minimal, however the sequence of events is: 1) you roll if you succeeded in the throw - if yes damage is rolled for the target 2) potion spill and characters who stand on the puddle get healed. Of course, the simplest way is to aim at the ground, rather than the target, for guaranteed heal and no damage. However, if you succesfully throw a potion at Findal it will kill him, before he can be healed with the spill.