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.

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
11 hours ago, Dsmcrn said:

Not currently suspended.

So she's still working there?

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3 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:

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.

I think the bigger question is why wasn't this reported to the BON right away to have her license (at least) temporarily suspended while the investigation was ongoing? That seems like a much more reasonable course of action.

The BON and the government should be protecting the public. My only argument is that they should be doing it swiftly and in a way that makes the most sense.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
1 hour 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.

You clearly have not read all 60+ pages of this thread. This has been discussed ad nauseum. I don't blame you for not wanting to wade through all the verbiage, but if nothing else, find and read the CMS report. If you think it's ok to practice that way, let us know.

No one is claiming to be infallible. Everyone has worked under horrible conditions. But there are certain corners a lot of us are just not willing to cut. I would definitely quit a job and brew lattes for a living than stay where I felt required to abandon basic safety protocols.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
22 minutes ago, Young_Torso said:

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.

Actually, I haven't read a single post on here where anyone is advocating for jail time. We're all just a bit perturbed that if it hadn't been for the criminal charges, she would still be practicing with an unencumbered license.

There is no way this person should resume practicing nursing until this event is thoroughly investigated and some remediation applied. Yes, that applies to the hospital as well as the nurse.

The nurse blew past all of the standard safeguards. Then the hospital failed to address this properly. Then the Board of Nursing failed. Someone has to protect the public. If the buck has to finally stop with the D.A. that is very unfortunate, for all concerned. But it has to stop somewhere.

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6 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:

Actually, I haven't read a single post on here where anyone is advocating for jail time. We're all just a bit perturbed that if it hadn't been for the criminal charges, she would still be practicing with an unencumbered license.

There is no way this person should resume practicing nursing until this event is thoroughly investigated and some remediation applied. Yes, that applies to the hospital as well as the nurse.

The nurse blew past all of the standard safeguards. Then the hospital failed to address this properly. Then the Board of Nursing failed. Someone has to protect the public. If the buck has to finally stop with the D.A. that is very unfortunate, for all concerned. But it has to stop somewhere.

Did you happen to see the poll where over 1/5th of those that voted think she should be charged? What do you think will happen if she's charged and convicted?

Other than that we agree on every point other than the buck stopping at the level of the justice system.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
18 minutes ago, Young_Torso said:

Did you happen to see the poll where over 1/5th of those that voted think she should be charged? What do you think will happen if she's charged and convicted?

Other than that we agree on every point other than the buck stopping at the level of the justice system.

Charged means she'll get her day in court. The poll didn't say convicted. The CMS report certainly does not shine a favorable light on her nursing practice. I don't care how short staffed or overworked you are; to not even look at the label on a vial of medication is a nursing 101 failure. She will have her opportunity to present her side of the story, which none of us are getting right now. All we have is a very damning CMS report, which goes far beyond any "news" story.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
19 minutes ago, Young_Torso said:

Did you happen to see the poll where over 1/5th of those that voted think she should be charged? What do you think will happen if she's charged and convicted?

Other than that we agree on every point other than the buck stopping at the level of the justice system.

Hopefully she takes a plea deal and avoids jail time. Now it's up to her and her attorney to decide how to proceed. Then it will be up to the court.

I always practiced with the understanding that I could and would be held accountable if I made an error that was egregious enough. It is a sobering thought. I am astounded at how many people have weighed in with the belief that somehow being a nurse and have less than stellar working conditions should get her off the hook. It doesn't work that way. It's a bummer, but there it is.

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8 hours ago, TriciaJ said:

No one is claiming to be infallible. Everyone has worked under horrible conditions. But there are certain corners a lot of us are just not willing to cut. I would definitely quit a job and brew lattes for a living than stay where I felt required to abandon basic safety protocols.

Student24 please read this again. This is what I am saying. I have been at this gig for a very long time and have never lowered myself to the level RV has in her practice of nursing and I never will. If you haven’t read the CMS report I suggest you do so.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
On 2/6/2019 at 6:34 AM, adventure_rn said:

Even if this person made a huge med error, I'm sure the guilt is already destroying her life.

I would like to think so.... but she wasn’t so destroyed that she wasn’t able to return to the bedside. She was still working.

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I haven't been able to work thru the info to have an opinion and it doesn't seem like she is able to really give her side d/t legalities of the pending case. There are always more than one side of the story. She has a go fund me that so far has $91000 raised so there are a definite differing of opinions here.

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10 hours ago, Young_Torso said:

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.

I love how you think. I love your objective thinking, your nonjudgmental approach. Amazing post thank you

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