Nurse Charged With Homicide

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Should Radonda Vaught, the nurse who gave a lethal dose of Vecuronium to patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, be charged with reckless homicide?

    • 395
      She should not have been charged
    • 128
      She deserved to be charged

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Radonda Vaught, a 35 year old nurse who worked at the University of 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.

11 hours ago, JadedCPN said:

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.

If she didn't know she had a gun in her hands the patient would still be alive.

Guns have ONE purpose they are designed for...not what people sometimes use them for, they were designed to kill. They were not originally created for target practice.

So with that in mind, if you put a gun to your friend's head and pull the trigger even a five year old would know if you were wrong about the gun being loaded, it would MOST LIKELY RESULT in that person's death.

Medications that nurses use...NONE of them were DESIGNED to cause the death of another. They are used to treat a disease process or provide comfort/sedation.

Therefore, no...she did not "know" or "reasonably knew" what she had in her hands had the potential to actually kill the patient.

0 Votes
7 minutes ago, Jory said:

Therefore, no...she did not "know" or "reasonably knew" what she had in her hands had the potential to actually kill the patient.

Except that she was a certified CV-ICU nurse with two years experience so it is not unreasonable to expect that she did know that the medication she thought she was giving had the potential for significant side effects including respiratory suppression.

2 Votes
Specializes in Practice educator.

I'd say no, but only just.

That poor patient would have died horribly.

0 Votes
Specializes in Medical Legal Consultant.

Every day nurses are put in difficult situations. If criminal charges are looming over our head, who would want to be a nurse? This case is clearly malpractice but I don't think it is arises to the level of a criminal matter. Vanderbilt should never have vecuronium in the radiology dept. In addition, there should be a warning that pops up on the Pyxis. Radonda was a new nurse having graduated in 2015. Her license is still active today. Vanderbilt swept this matter under the rug and it was not until CMS got involved, that this matter came to light. This was not just a nurse error but a system error. There were cases in Indiana where the adult heparin was stocked in the Pyxis instead of the pediatric heparin. 3 babies died as a result of an overdose of heparin. No criminal charges were filed.

1 Votes
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
43 minutes ago, Lorie Brown RN, MN, JD said:

Every day nurses are put in difficult situations. If criminal charges are looming over our head, who would want to be a nurse? This case is clearly malpractice but I don't think it is arises to the level of a criminal matter. Vanderbilt should never have vecuronium in the radiology dept. In addition, there should be a warning that pops up on the Pyxis. Radonda was a new nurse having graduated in 2015. Her license is still active today. Vanderbilt swept this matter under the rug and it was not until CMS got involved, that this matter came to light. This was not just a nurse error but a system error. There were cases in Indiana where the adult heparin was stocked in the Pyxis instead of the pediatric heparin. 3 babies died as a result of an overdose of heparin. No criminal charges were filed.

One of the posters (Wuzzie) shared a link to the CMS report of the investigation findings and a number of details make the mistake more egregious on the part of the nurse than many of us, including myself, thought at first. The test was a PET scan.

The drug vecuronium was not pulled from a Radiology Pyxis. The report indicated that the nurse (who had an orientee), agreed to go down to Radiology at the request of the patient's primary nurse to administer the Versed. Prior to doing that, the involved nurse took the wrong medication from the Pyxis in the Neuro ICU which rightfully so, would have vecuronium stocked. She bagged the medication with a syringe and a flush and labelled it Versed.

Because of the override function the nurse did, I bet there was no pop up warning (which I don't think exists on current systems, correct me if I'm wrong). However, standard supplies have the vial cap clealry indicating that the drug is a paralytic. It is also listed in their institution as a High Alert medication. However, I'm not sure how that is indicated on their Pyxis.

Even if the nurse thought in her mind that she had just given the patient Versed, she flat out told the Radiology Tech that the patient did not need any sort of monitoring by a nurse when she was asked and she left the premises in a time frame that did not even allow her to determine the patient's response to the medication she just gave. The overhead page for a code was called after she had already left Radiology.

It does appear that, Vanderbilt, attempted to sweep the issue under the rug based on the report which is a shame and part of this unfortunate series of events.

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7 Votes
20 minutes ago, Lorie Brown RN, MN, JD said:

1. Vanderbilt should never have vecuronium in the radiology dept. In addition, there should be a warning that pops up on the Pyxis. 2.Radonda was a new nurse having graduated in 2015.

1. The medication was pulled from the ICU Accudose. There were at least three warnings. On the screen, on the cubie and on the vial.

2. A nurse with 2 years experience is not a green nurse and she had advanced certifications. Regardless, even nursing students understand the need for the 5 rights.

Read the entire CMS report.

4 Votes
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
9 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

A nurse with 2 years experience is not a green nurse and she had advanced certifications. Regardless, even nursing students understand the need for the 5 rights.

Hence, Vanderbilt's ICU team saw it fit to assign her an orientee!

2 Votes
11 hours ago, mtmkjr said:

Let's say the perfectly sober but distracted pilot just didn't do any of the safety checks before taking off!

I mean, after all... He is under so much pressure to be on time!

That has happened before. I bet the number of pilots who did that and survived but went to jail are at about zero. My father is a former flight instructor, my stepdad was a test pilot. They said that an OVERWHELMING number of aviation accidents are due to pilot error, usually an omission to take a safety action. Unless their "mistakes" are willful or due to chemical impairment, they typically don't go to jail.

0 Votes

So much can be taken from this situation. One thing is to cover your butt. If you are assigned to train someone else make sure you are doing your job the best you can. If you have to risk you license to make sure someone gets a great orientation experience don't do it. Honestly I don't like the process of how nurses are trained anyway and many new nurses, preceptors get frustrated with it. Many just don't have the time to do it but are expected to. It is hard enough trying to get through your day but to add on, training someone, that can take the cake. The nurse rushed and lost her mind (didn't think to do things correctly), and ended her career in the process. Now I know why I have been given bad training. Some people are not meant to train as well despite what the hospital thinks.

0 Votes
10 hours ago, HomeBound said:

"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"

Why. Because you said so?

Hey, she's just stating her opinion, just as you have numerous times in this thread, just as I have in this thread.

2 Votes

I wonder what methodical approach to caring for an ICU patient assignment the orientee was supposed to be learning by shadowing the help-all role.

And let's be real, I don't think expertise is what qualifies one to train an orientee in the current environment. I think if you're off orientation for a couple of months yourself, you're pretty much eligible...

1 Votes
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
1 hour ago, Workitinurfava said:

So much can be taken from this situation. One thing is to cover your butt. If you are assigned to train someone else make sure you are doing your job the best you can. If you have to risk you license to make sure someone gets a great orientation experience don't do it. Honestly I don't like the process of how nurses are trained anyway and many new nurses, preceptors get frustrated with it. Many just don't have the time to do it but are expected to. It is hard enough trying to get through your day but to add on, training someone, that can take the cake. The nurse rushed and lost her mind (didn't think to do things correctly), and ended her career in the process. Now I know why I have been given bad training. Some people are not meant to train as well despite what the hospital thinks.

I agree with you. Unfortunately, the report indicated that the nurse was talking to the orientee about an unrelated topic while she was pulling the wrong medication. It certainly was the distraction in this situation. Both nurse and orientee must be distracted at the time because that was a missed opportunity for a perfect situation wherein two nurses are checking each other's actions if their eyes were both looking at the Pyxis (or ADC) screen.

2 Votes
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