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.

[Dsmcrn]

?

[student24]

Not charge. All of you guys know how these hospitals throw patients at us, do not care if we are overwhelmed, tired, didn't have lunch, they just don't care. The situation is sad, heart breaking but this could happen to any of us. She is not a criminal, no she should not go to jail. Health policymaker should put a law for nurse-patient ratio in ALL states to end hospital greed because this is a safety issue, something we all have said before.

[student24]

7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

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

Listen, you can put up as many examples as you want, it is not the same when you are a bedside nurse and have critical patients to manage. I see you are a N.P (me too) but remember when you were at the bedside doing the best you can to manage these patients, praying none of them coded because you are barely making it for the shift. Please stop throwing nurses under the bus because it can happen to you too in different ways. As nurses, you know hospital administration treat us like garbage, never listen when we say we have too many patient, cannot admit another so you are forced to transfer another to get another (don't forget) with your silly sad examples. I can't stand nurses like you, acting high and mighty. This has touch my heart because I know as a SICU nurse now NP how things can get crazy.

[student24]

7 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.

If I wasn't a N.P, i would have left long time ago. Nursing is scary, the whole 12hr shift your heart is squeezed, its too much. Something have to give...

[Wuzzie]

2 hours ago, student24 said:

The situation is sad, heart breaking but this could happen to any of us. 

No, it could not. Not unless you disregard everything you were ever taught about safe medication administration which is what happened in this scenario.

[student24]

4 hours ago, Wuzzie said:

No, it could not. Not unless you disregard everything you were ever taught about safe medication administration which is what happened in this scenario.

Hello Wuzzie,

Do not never say it can't happened to you, yes we are taught how to do things correctly but in the REAL world sometime we do not do it because the amount of pressure hospital administration put on US, ie, nurse managers, charge nurse, clinical coordinators, etc... The only way this can never happen is if ratio are doable, nurses are not burnt out and have time to care and know the patient we manage instead of completing task. It is so sad to see nurses like you think the nursing world is perfect, you probably never put time in and actually worked,REAL work. Smh... Nursing is a cut throat world, majority of our fellow sisters eat and chew us out. No support. I pray this never happens to you or anyone else.

[Dsmcrn]

9 minutes ago, student24 said:

Hello Wuzzie,

Do not never say it can't happened to you, yes we are taught how to do things correctly but in the REAL world sometime we do not do it because the amount of pressure hospital administration put on US, ie, nurse managers, charge nurse, clinical coordinators, etc... The only way this can never happen is if ratio are doable, nurses are not burnt out and have time to care and know the patient we manage instead of completing task. It is so sad to see nurses like you think the nursing world is perfect, you probably never put time in and actually worked,REAL work. Smh... Nursing is a cut throat world, majority of our fellow sisters eat and chew us out. No support. I pray this never happens to you or anyone else.

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

[Dsmcrn]

39 minutes ago, student24 said:

Hello Wuzzie,

Do not never say it can't happened to you, yes we are taught how to do things correctly but in the REAL world sometime we do not do it because the amount of pressure hospital administration put on US, ie, nurse managers, charge nurse, clinical coordinators, etc... The only way this can never happen is if ratio are doable, nurses are not burnt out and have time to care and know the patient we manage instead of completing task. It is so sad to see nurses like you think the nursing world is perfect, you probably never put time in and actually worked,REAL work. Smh... Nursing is a cut throat world, majority of our fellow sisters eat and chew us out. No support. I pray this never happens to you or anyone else.

Amen and thank you

[TriciaJ, RN]

On 4/5/2019 at 6:26 PM, 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?

She was investigated by the Tennessee Board of Nursing and they applied no sanction to her license. There have been many here who have speculated that if the Board had done their job, the DA might not have brought forth charges.

[Young_Torso]

15 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

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

This post is riddled with poor comparisons.

1. Comparing this situation to a drunk driver: not close because while both involve licensure, the accessibility to the means to cause harm is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH higher for the drunk driver. You can suspend a drunk driver's license and they can still potentially cause harm as long as they have access to car keys. A nurse can't just randomly show up at any given healthcare facility and potentially cause harm. You're also not dealing with any issues of underlying addictions that create such behavior.

2. Comparing this to the high mother: again not a good comparison because there's no licensure involved in having a child, and that's not even factoring in that baby doesn't just starve and die in the same duration that pushing a paralytic would do the job. That's days upon days of complete and utter neglect rather than a few moments. Infinitely greater potential to right that wrong.

3. Comparing this to drug dealers: this one isn't even close. I'll also give my unpopular opinion that the drug dealers should definitely be charged with possession with intent to sell, but not homicide (unless they sold a drug mixed with a substance that the buyer wasn't looking to purchase). I don't think we should charge store clerks at the liquor store with homicide if someone went in and bought a handle of vodka and subsequently died of alcohol poisoning.

4. Comparing to someone accidentally shot: this is more of a consequence of a lack of gun regulations in this country. This country was built on the backs of guns and we've had over 2 centuries to establish gun legislation had some semblance of reasonability. It's negligence, but I've taken a look at Utah's gun laws and it seems like laws on recreational shooting are...vague at best.

5. Comparing this to an irresponsible landlord: Again...no licensure issues that would stop an individual from doing the same thing again.

6. Comparing to an airshow pilot that accidentally crashed: No mention of mechanical failures. Just sounds like an airshow gone wrong without any explanation of the actual "negligence". Call me crazy...but I've been to an airshow and they're inherently dangerous.

No matter the differences, I think the big difference lies in how we feel jail time benefits the perpetrator and the community as a whole. I'm of the opinion that jail should be reserved for violent criminals and individuals that prey on others for their own gain--individuals that truly have no value to society and pose a definite threat to others. If there's a chance to remove the individual from the environment to which they've caused harm and help rehabilitate that should be the first option.

[TriciaJ, RN]

On 4/5/2019 at 6:31 PM, 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 ?

She might not have done anything. She might have decided for any number of reasons that nursing is not for her and she was better off in a different job.

[TriciaJ, RN]

12 hours ago, Dsmcrn said:

Exactly! She isn’t a threat to society!

Actually, she very well could be. Per the CMS report, she practiced very recklessly. When the patient died and she got fired, she promptly went to another hospital and started working for them. When the incident finally got reported to the BON they declined to take any action and to this day she has an unencumbered license.

Who protects the public from nurses who shouldn't be nurses? If she is exonerated in court then she can carry on.