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.

16 minutes ago, Young_Torso said:

She's been removed from an environment where she could potentially cause further harm. I don't see what any additional punitive measures would accomplish. 

But she hasn’t been. Immediately after her termination from Vande she took a job at Centennial. She was suspended from that job when the news broke but there has been no report that she has been terminated and her license is still active and unencumbered.

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1 minute ago, Wuzzie said:

But she hasn’t been. Immediately after her termination from Vande she took a job at Centennial. She was suspended from that job when the news broke but there has been no report that she has been terminated and her license is still active and unencumbered.

Wasn't aware that she was able to find employment after the incident. I stand corrected.

Kind of a strange disconnect where you can be charged with reckless homicide before your license is revoked, no?

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Specializes in PCU.
Just now, Young_Torso said:

Kind of a strange disconnect where you can be charged with reckless homicide before your license is revoked, no?

This whole interlude has been rather strange. I just hope it is over soon for all involved. I feel awful for everyone involved. It sounds like an absolute nightmare. I am not sure I would be up to the fight. Studies show that a number of nurses caught in issues where a patient is harmed or dies eventually end up committing suicide due to the guilt and issues that continue to arise long after the incident has happened. I cannot imagine what this nurse's life will be like after this is all over. I do know as a teen I met a former nurse who was working as a cashier/stocker in a pharmacy with me and it made me wonder what she had done to be reduced in circumstances because I could not imagine going from being an RN to being just a blue collar in some obscure pharmacy retail job as she was doing and I was just an older teen at the time, so I assume a lot of people will look askance at someone who was once a nurse and no longer is one ?

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Specializes in LTC & Teaching.
9 hours ago, maelstrom143 said:

This whole interlude has been rather strange. I just hope it is over soon for all involved. I feel awful for everyone involved. It sounds like an absolute nightmare. I am not sure I would be up to the fight. Studies show that a number of nurses caught in issues where a patient is harmed or dies eventually end up committing suicide due to the guilt and issues that continue to arise long after the incident has happened. I cannot imagine what this nurse's life will be like after this is all over. I do know as a teen I met a former nurse who was working as a cashier/stocker in a pharmacy with me and it made me wonder what she had done to be reduced in circumstances because I could not imagine going from being an RN to being just a blue collar in some obscure pharmacy retail job as she was doing and I was just an older teen at the time, so I assume a lot of people will look askance at someone who was once a nurse and no longer is one ?

I often wonder the same thing with regards to how many nurses have left the profession and have moved on to minmum wage type jobs. I have never encountered such an abusive, rediculed, descriminated against and prosecuted profession other than nursing. When my mom was accidently killed in a hospital where a medical procedure went wrong, there was absolutely no actions of any kind taken against the doctors involved.

Nurses are often made the scapegoats in an often toxic health care system. I'm sure every nurse who has worked for over a decade can describe numerous examples where nurses were often blamed for something. The sad reality is that many nurses are conditioned not to stick up for them selves.

With this nurse who has been charged, she's in a possition where she has no choice but to stick up for self. One would hope that all of the FACTS surrounding the incident will surface.

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Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.
9 hours ago, Young_Torso said:

Wasn't aware that she was able to find employment after the incident. I stand corrected.

Kind of a strange disconnect where you can be charged with reckless homicide before your license is revoked, no?

The TN (not TX, wrong state people ? ) decided to not do anything to her license (which is suspected to be why the state stepped in with charges.

This is identical to people who kill because of distracted/tired driving, because they were texting or drinking. Or if they did something egregiously careless.

Tell me, if your babysitter didn't buckle your child into a corificeat prior to travel and the child died, directly because of that negligence, do you honestly think you'd be ok knowing that she not only didn't have any punishment, but was now babysitting for other people.

There's lots of ways to carelessly kill someone that you can still get arrested and put in jail for.

Examples:

https://www.easttexasmatters.com/news/local-news/attorney-man-serving-10-years-for-criminally-negligent-homicide-appealing-conviction/1897367513 Drunk driver
https://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lange-sentenced-on-negligent-homicide-of--month-old/article_326c46b1-303b-55c4-956c-ca2fcadc4fb4.html Mom got high, baby died of starvation
https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/crime/two-arrested-for-negligent-homicide-in-overdose-deaths-within-a-week/71-fd987e3f-cc06-4dc6-a87a-1bd62f9ac2ee Dealers charged with selling the drugs that someone did and overdosed with
https://kutv.com/news/local/woman-charged-with-negligent-homicide-in-shooting-death-of-14-year-old Target shooting and didn't check to see what was behind the forest, missed the target, bullet hit a teenager passing on the highway.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/04/02/david-wiley-kendall-death-plea-joan-gilman-rj-gilman-carbon-monoxide/3339710002/ Ran a generator in a garage, it killed two tenants in the house with CO accidentally (he lived there too)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/shoreham-air-crash-pilot-to-be-charged-with-manslaughter Not the US, but a pilot

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13 hours ago, Young_Torso said:

I get that the nurse in question overrode safeguards, I get that she didn't follow the six rights of medication administration, and I acknowledge that her actions showed a great deal of negligence and recklessness. Revocation of her licensure would be a very fair and warranted punishment, in my opinion.

Having said that: I don't see how incarceration or any further legal action would benefit any party in this situation. This nurse isn't a cold-blooded killer. She made a careless, tragic mistake, continues to have her name dragged through the dirt, will never work in nursing ever again, and has to live with this for the rest of her life. That sounds like punishment enough for me.

She's been removed from an environment where she could potentially cause further harm. I don't see what any additional punitive measures would accomplish.

Exactly! She isn’t a threat to society!

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13 hours ago, Wuzzie said:

But she hasn’t been. Immediately after her termination from Vande she took a job at Centennial. She was suspended from that job when the news broke but there has been no report that she has been terminated and her license is still active and unencumbered.

She was NOT suspended this is false.

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3 hours ago, Truth66 said:

I often wonder the same thing with regards to how many nurses have left the profession and have moved on to minmum wage type jobs. I have never encountered such an abusive, rediculed, descriminated against and prosecuted profession other than nursing. When my mom was accidently killed in a hospital where a medical procedure went wrong, there was absolutely no actions of any kind taken against the doctors involved.

Nurses are often made the scapegoats in an often toxic health care system. I'm sure every nurse who has worked for over a decade can describe numerous examples where nurses were often blamed for something. The sad reality is that many nurses are conditioned not to stick up for them selves.

With this nurse who has been charged, she's in a possition where she has no choice but to stick up for self. One would hope that all of the FACTS surrounding the incident will surface.

I’m with you. Lost my Dad to medical error!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
33 minutes ago, Dsmcrn said:

She was NOT suspended this is false.

Incorrect. "While she is currently employed at the hospital, a spokesperson said that she is currently suspended and has no contact with patients since February 4, the day she was charged ."

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/support-grows-for-ex-vumc-nurse-charged-with-reckless-homicide

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16 minutes ago, Rose_Queen said:

Incorrect. "While she is currently employed at the hospital, a spokesperson said that she is currently suspended and has no contact with patients since February 4, the day she was charged ."

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/support-grows-for-ex-vumc-nurse-charged-with-reckless-homicide

Not currently suspended.

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Specializes in ER.
27 minutes ago, Dsmcrn said:

Not currently suspended.

From your article:

Quote

Vaught, who still has her license with the state and was able to get a job at TriStar Centennial Medical Center, created her own GoFundMe account to raise money for legal expenses. In a matter of four days, it raised more than $50,000. While she is currently employed at the hospital, a spokesperson said that she is currently suspended and has no contact with patients since February 4, the day she was charged .

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Specializes in ER.
1 minute ago, Dsmcrn said:

Dated Feb 12th

Source?

And, if they unsuspended her, they are obviously a substandard place.

And, if she didn't reveal why she left her previous job, the should have sent her packing immediately.

This whole case makes a mockery of patient safety. The fact that she was deemed safe to practice without remediation and monitoring is an outrage.

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