Vanderbilt is having a rough patch. First the lethal Vecuronium error and now a "never event".
A woman at Vanderbilt undergoing kidney surgery suffered a wrong-site surgery to her kidney- a "never event". She filed a 25 million dollar lawsuit due to extensive damage and is now dependent on dialysis. Neither here nor there, but one news report said the woman was a certified nursing assistant (CNA).
In the first case, the RN was arrested and charged with reckless homicide. Should the surgeon likewise be arrested and face charges?
I seriously cannot believe that people want that nurse to go to prison for manslaughter. What she did was negligent, definitely not manslaughter. Regarding the Verconium incident she was honest from the beginning, Vanderbilt hid the truth from the family for months. Despite that fact some how that nurse is going to be a scapegoat for manslaughter instead of negligence. There's alot wrong with this situation.
Did you read the CMS report? Or the actual charges? If you had it would be blatantly obvious that her actions absolutely fit the definition of reckless homicide and she needs to explain herself to the public. As far as her being honest. She really had no choice, the error was discovered by another nurse so there was no way for her to cover it up. Plus the patient, you know, died so that’s kind of hard to ignore. What Vandy did after, while extraordinarily slimy, has zero bearing on what RV did. She’s not being scapegoated. She royally screwed up and is being held accountable.
What case exactly set precedence for current case law?
You can search it yourself but there have been two. One involving two NPs back in 1998 (I might be off by a year) and another an L&D nurse. All were charged and found guilty but none served any jail time. You might want to read the threads regarding the RV case if you are looking for more details.
This is very different than what happened in the RV case and I believe there is more to this story as some of the details don’t add up. A simple stent placement in a normal kidney even if it’s the wrong kidney should not result in a patient needing dialysis for “life”. Regardless, the physician was not the only person tasked with assuring that the correct surgical site was chosen. The “time out” procedure involves the majority of the OR team. There is a system component to this as well as individual. Hopefully the licenses of all involved have been impacted and the surgeon, as the team leader, should have his pulled. The rest seems more suited for a civil action. Now, if the surgeon refused to scrub, didn’t wear a mask or sterile gloves, wiped the instruments on his jeans before using them, sneezed into the incision, got the mesh tubing from Quality Farm and Fleet and closed the patient with stuff from his mom’s sewing kit then perhaps criminal charges would be appropriate.
If the surgeon did the cutting, then it should be on the the surgeon. The surgeon should make sure to the cut the appropriate area, just like the nurse using her hands to adminster the medication. A time out does not replace the surgeon whom is making a cut on a person. What good is a time out if the surgeon doesn't read the chart and make sure the correct site is being operated on. The time out to me is like the rights of medication adminstration minus the extra people. This is assuming the chart was read. If the chart wasn't read, then appropriate charges need to be given to the surgeon and not everyone involved. The MD's go to school and get paid more to make sure they are cutting the correct sites on patients bodies.
So AbstractRN2B I’m assuming that your “dislike” of my post is indicative that you didn’t actually read the CMS report. Since you aren’t actually a nurse yet you might want to have a look at it so you have a better grasp of what not to do if you want to be a prudent nurse. I would encourage you to try to identify every step that RV did wrong (there are at least 12) so you get a better understanding of the importance of diligence and attention to detail in your nursing practice. This will make you an excellent provider and your patients will benefit.
Specializes in RN critical care,traveler,critical care float,CNA5.
39 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:
Did you read the CMS report? Or the actual charges? If you had it would be blatantly obvious that her actions absolutely fit the definition of reckless homicide and she needs to explain herself to the public. As far as her being honest. She really had no choice, the error was discovered by another nurse so there was no way for her to cover it up. Plus the patient, you know, died so that’s kind of hard to ignore. What Vandy did after, while extraordinarily slimy, has zero bearing on what RV did. She’s not being scapegoated. She royally screwed up and is being held accountable.
She was negligent, in order for reckless homicide to be what occurred she had to intentionally or knowingly give the wrong medicine. She did neither of those things. She did negligently override the necessary safe guard. And yes due to her negligent behavior a patient died. She was trying to pull Versed and put the name brand name instead of the generic, it was unintentionally done and fits more into negligence.
Specializes in RN critical care,traveler,critical care float,CNA5.
5 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:
So AbstractRN2B I’m assuming that your “dislike” of my post is indicative that you didn’t actually read the CMS report. Since you aren’t actually a nurse yet you might want to have a look at it so you have a better grasp of what not to do if you want to be a prudent nurse. I would encourage you to try to identify every step that RV did wrong (there are at least 12) so you get a better understanding of the importance of diligence and attention to detail in your nursing practice. This will make you an excellent provider and your patients will benefit.
Thanks I'll remember that, have a goodnight. And it's a rating try not to be so thin skinned and take everything personally.
She was negligent, in order for reckless homicide to be what occurred she had to intentionally or knowingly give the wrong medicine. She did neither of those things. She did negligently override the necessary safe guard. And yes due to her negligent behavior a patient died. She was trying to pull Versed and put the name brand name instead of the generic, it was unintentionally done and fits more into negligence.
There’s another thread on this. If you bypass many steps built in to the system to prevent such an error, the argument is that it at some point becomes more than simply negligent. Of course I’m sure she didn’t mean for the patient to die, but one must intentionally bypass so many safety steps to do what she did.
Thats why my comment was that this may not be the best comparison because this one sounds like more of a systems issue, but no CMS report yet so it’s hard to know.
Thanks I'll remember that, have a goodnight. And it's a rating try not to be so thin skinned and take everything personally.
I don’t know you so you needn’t worry about me taking it personally. I tend to refrain from “rating” people negatively, unless something posted is just awful, as it serves absolutely no purpose and I find it childish. I’d rather have an adult discussion about differences of opinion.
Specializes in RN critical care,traveler,critical care float,CNA5.
2 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:
I don’t know you so you needn’t worry about me taking it personally. I tend to refrain from “rating” people negatively, unless something posted is just awful, as it serves absolutely no purpose and I find it childish. I’d rather have an adult discussion about differences of opinion.
This isn't the only site with a rating system and you are taking something personally if you consider someone using a rating for its intended purpose as "childish". I rated it disagree because I disagree with your comment.
AbstracRN, BSN, CNA, RN
68 Posts
What case exactly set precedence for current case law?