Nurse Charged With Homicide

[Nurse Beth]

Radonda Vaught, a 35 year old nurse who worked at the University of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been indicted on charges of reckless homicide. Read Nurse Gives Lethal Dose of Vecuronium

Radonda is the nurse who mistakenly gave Vecuronium (a paralytic) to a patient instead of Versed. The patient died.

[JKL33]

Sorry, I should've just quoted. I am solely rejecting the sanctimonious idea elsewhere above that any deviance from that which we were taught always amounts to a willful choice in the way that human beings usually think of having choices and making willful choices.

Being pulled in two compelling directions comes to mind. Susie and I have had this discussion before and her answer was basically that she wouldn't put herself in that situation.

[mtnNurse., BSN]

9 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

Ignoring basic principals of medication administration that are drilled into our heads from the very beginning is not a mistake. For heavens sake she admitted to not even looking at the name of the medication on the vial. Who does that?

To borrow most of your words to make a point:

Ignoring basic principals of medication administration that are drilled into our heads from the very beginning is not a mistake. For heavens sake she admitted to not even looking at the id bracelet. Who does that?

I would not use the words above on your lapse of judgement (I know you don't want me to call what you did a mistake, Wuzzie), but just turning your own question to yourself, the answer is you did it. The answer to your above question is she did it. She did it even though she should have known better. She had a momentary lapse of judgement. For all we know, it was her only lapse of good judgement in her nursing career (also for all we know she is a cold-blooded murderer, but I'm basing my thoughts of whether she should be criminally charged on the assumption that she is a good person and a good nurse). Yes her mistake was worse than yours because her patient died. But my point is none of us in most working environments are above making a grave mistake or having a serious lapse of good judgement at some point. None of us are immune to that possibility. If you think you are, you could use a better imagination of what could happen when you're working as nurse in our imperfect health care system.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

1 minute ago, mtnNurse. said:

but I'm basing my thoughts of whether she should be criminally charged on the assumption that she is a good person and a good nurse

That is irrelevant on whether someone should be criminally charged or not! I have no doubt that she is likely a good person AND a good nurse who just made a horrible mistake. But just like someone texting and driving, or speeding, who also is a good person and made a horrible mistake, that does not mean they should not be charged.

And yes, I include myself in this scenario. If it were me who did what she did, I would deserve to be charged. It is a horrible situation and I feel for her because that could easily be me, or my coworkers, but that doesn't excuse what happened.

[mtnNurse., BSN]

1 minute ago, JadedCPN said:

That is irrelevant on whether someone should be criminally charged or not!

You are misunderstanding me. Please, please go back to page 15 or so and read everything up to this point. I explained why she should not be charged with "reckless homicide" and it has nothing to do with whether I think she is a good person. What I meant was if she cold-blooded murdered someone, that is another thing altogether. I'm assuming that is not what happened and that she went to work not planning to kill anyone but to care for patients that day!

[mtnNurse., BSN]

JadedCPN, since you want to reply without reading all previous replies first, I'll repost this for you because I'm trying to get you to understand why what she did is not "reckless homicide" which she was charged with.

Quote

7 hours ago, SaltineQueen said:

I don't know that I agree with "deserved to be charged" but LEGALLY this fits the definition of reckless homicide.

What she did does not fit the definition of reckless homicide. Hopefully I chose a good source to quote the following:

Reckless vs. Criminally Negligent Homicide

Reckless homicide and criminally negligent homicide are more loosely defined in Tennessee to address the wide variety of behaviors that could be considered beyond the realm of acceptable to the degree that the actions are criminal. One example of reckless homicide is playing Russian roulette by picking up a gun with a single bullet in it and shooting it at a friend. There's a substantial risk the friend will die. In comparison, picking up a gun you believe is empty but failed to check before shooting at your friend could be criminally negligent, as you should have looked to be sure it was empty but had no knowledge or belief that it was loaded.

"Beyond the realm of acceptable to the degree..." -- this subjectivity is why we're debating whether she should be charged. The behavior that we all regard as unacceptable is that she grabbed the wrong medication and administered it. Grabbing the wrong medication and administering it is unacceptable -- but not to the degree of being criminal. Why is it not criminal? Because depending on what led up to her horrible mistakes, we might be able to understand how she ended up in the unaware mindset she was in to make such a mistake. Anyone who has worked as a nurse in an understaffed hospital could make a long list of factors that could, if all horrifically aligned in one moment, cause mistakes of this magnitude.

She was not aware in those moments that she was picking up a loaded gun and shooting it at the patient -- she should have been aware (as people wisely pointed out, all nurses should always be aware that any medicine could be fatal to any patient) -- but she was not aware. If she had the presence of mind to think she might possibly kill this patient, then she would have had the presence of mind to double-check what the medicine was.

So if anything, what she did fits the definition of criminal negligence, not reckless homicide.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, mtnNurse. said:

You are misunderstanding me. Please, please go back to page 15 or so and read everything up to this point. I explained why she should not be charged with "reckless homicide" and it has nothing to do with whether I think she is a good person. What I meant was if she cold-blooded murdered someone, that is another thing altogether. I'm assuming that is not what happened and that she went to work not planning to kill anyone but to care for patients that day!

I've already read through every reply on this page, including your post regarding reckless homicide and Russian roulette, as well as the CMS report. Not sure why you are assuming I haven't read just because I don't agree with what you said. I'm just saying based on what I found the legal definition to be according to code in the state of Tennessee, it fits. I completely agree that she didn't go to work planning to kill anyone, there was absolutely no malicious intent at all. It's a horrible situation.

[Wuzzie]

12 minutes ago, mtnNurse. said:

To borrow most of your words to make a point:

Ignoring basic principals of medication administration that are drilled into our heads from the very beginning is not a mistake. For heavens sake she admitted to not even looking at the id bracelet. Who does that?

I would not use the words above on your lapse of judgement (I know you don't want me to call what you did a mistake, Wuzzie), but just turning your own question to yourself, the answer is you did it. The answer to your above question is she did it. She did it even though she should have known better. She had a momentary lapse of judgement. For all we know, it was her only lapse of good judgement in her nursing career (also for all we know she is a cold-blooded murderer, but I'm basing my thoughts of whether she should be criminally charged on the assumption that she is a good person and a good nurse). Yes her mistake was worse than yours because her patient died. But my point is none of us in most working environments are above making a grave mistake or having a serious lapse of good judgement at some point. None of us are immune to that possibility. If you think you are, you could use a better imagination of what could happen when you're working as nurse in our imperfect health care system.

Whether my patient died or not is irrelevant. However, I did not make bad decision, after bad decision, after bad decision. I also appropriately monitored my patient. Which I would have done if the medication was given to the right patient. This has been my main point all along. Had she properly monitored the patient for the med she thought she gave this whole tragedy would not have even occurred.

And I AM a working nurse who is very well aware of the folly that is our health care system

[mtnNurse., BSN]

1 minute ago, Wuzzie said:

However, I did not make bad decision, after bad decision, after bad decision.

I guess one big difference in my thinking is that I see this as one big mistake she made -- administering a wrong medicine. I just picture her in a mindless rush to grab the med, administer, and run off to the next task. So I am picturing her in a very poor state of mind, grabbing the med she "knew" was the right one, and not even thinking of monitoring because she "knew" the patient wouldn't be harmed because she "knew" it was "some anti-anxiety med the ICU nurse told her to give" and she "knew" the patient would be fine. She obviously didn't know enough about either ordered med or given med that she should have been in "nurse-helper" role as people have pointed out.

So even though JadedCPN, you think all this not-knowing and poor judgement and mindlessness that went on with this poor nurse that day makes her guilty of reckless homicide -- but if she didn't know the gun was loaded, it's not reckless homicide it's criminal negligence instead. If she didn't even know she held a gun in her hands, it's not even criminal negligence. See what I'm saying?

[Wuzzie]

13 minutes ago, mtnNurse. said:

"Beyond the realm of acceptable to the degree..." -- this subjectivity is why we're debating whether she should be charged. The behavior that we all regard as unacceptable is that she grabbed the wrong medication and administered it. Grabbing the wrong medication and administering it is unacceptable -- but not to the degree of being criminal. Why is it not criminal? Because depending on what led up to her horrible mistakes, we might be able to understand how she ended up in the unaware mindset she was in to make such a mistake. Anyone who has worked as a nurse in an understaffed hospital could make a long list of factors that could, if all horrifically aligned in one moment, cause mistakes of this magnitude.

Actually, my reasoning for believing she was reckless in her actions has less to do with pulling the wrong med and more to do with the fact that she didn’t monitor the patient correctly for the medication she thought she gave. Had she done that the patient would not be dead.

Anybody familiar with Versed is well aware of its dangerous side effects and the need for, at the very least, eyes on monitoring. If she was not familiar with the medication then the onus was in her to look it up!

[mtnNurse., BSN]

1 minute ago, Wuzzie said:

she didn’t monitor the patient correctly for the medication she thought she gave

But what if she didn't know (though she 'should know') that she needed to monitor the patient after giving that med? There's a difference between poor judgement and recklessness -- recklessness means she knew and was conscious of the fact that by giving that med and walking away she could be killing that patient. I don't believe she was conscious of that -- if she had been, she would have thought to check the med or monitor.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

2 minutes ago, mtnNurse. said:

I guess one big difference in my thinking is that I see this as one big mistake she made -- administering a wrong medicine. I just picture her in a mindless rush to grab the med, administer, and run off to the next task. So I am picturing her in a very poor state of mind, grabbing the med she "knew" was the right one, and not even thinking of monitoring because she "knew" the patient wouldn't be harmed because she "knew" it was "some anti-anxiety med the ICU nurse told her to give" and she "knew" the patient would be fine. She obviously didn't know enough about either ordered med or given med that she should have been in "nurse-helper" role as people have pointed out.

So even though JadedCPN, you think all this not-knowing and poor judgement and mindlessness that went on with this poor nurse that day makes her guilty of reckless homicide -- but if she didn't know the gun was loaded, it's not reckless homicide it's criminal negligence instead. If she didn't even know she held a gun in her hands, it's not even criminal negligence. See what I'm saying?

I completely understand your argument and what you are saying, for sure. I definitely see it differently, not as one big mistake but rather I see it as the multiple individual mistakes that she made which led to this death. I just can't agree that she didn't know she held a gun in her hands though. As a nurse giving any medication, especially an IV push medication, we all have to be aware that the potential for injury is there. That is your loaded gun.

And yes, I practice this too. I tell my husband and friends all the time when they make fun of me for not drinking a lot or not staying out late the night before I work in the morning, I literally tell them that at the end of the day I have a patient's LIFE in my hands for 12 hours that I have to be awake and alert for. I am very much aware that I have a gun in my hands at all times at work and I take that very seriously. I am just fortunate that the mistakes I have made throughout my career haven't been fatal.

[Wuzzie]

32 minutes ago, JKL33 said:

Sorry, I should've just quoted. I am solely rejecting the sanctimonious idea elsewhere above that any deviance from that which we were taught always amounts to a willful choice in the way that human beings usually think of having choices and making willful choices.

Is this directed at me? ☹️