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.

10 hours 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.

You are way to quick to bash her. You know well I meant out in the every day world like the grocery store. The mall. The park. These are the places among many others criminal are a threat to society.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

How comfortable would any of us be if she came in to give us an IV medication with an unlabeled syringe? Would you let her?

Like many people, I struggle with the effort it took to make this error - not just one step to override. Reconstituting a powder. Having to calculate to reconstitute it for a specific dose. Reading her own account that their staffing was good and she was comfortable with her assignment. There is no doubt that she made several large errors.

But then I come back to intent. Did she set out to hurt this patient? I strongly doubt it. In my mind, this is similar to someone texting and driving and hitting a pedestrian. They didn't mean to do it, but the result is the same. So I hope she has sought counseling to deal with what she did (in her statement she admits that she knows she messed up), and I also hope they find appropriate resolution on the legal side in the right proportion to her intent.

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7 minutes ago, Dsmcrn said:

I love your objective thinking, your nonjudgmental approach.

I would think the TBI report posted above would meet your criteria as well. I’m seriously interested in hearing your thoughts on it. Regardless of what you believe I am really trying to understand your viewpoint. Which is why I ask for things like links and your opinion. The fact that I disagree does not make me the horrible person that you have implied.

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2 hours ago, Here.I.Stand said:

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.

Very unfair to judge her reaction/action. None of us know what other people have going on in their lives. Jude her actions in the incident. Don’t judge how she feels about it or her actions after. Judge her nursing practice fine. But none of us have the right to judge her actions after. Only the man above knows all the moving parts of her life.

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1 minute ago, Pixie.RN said:

But then I come back to intent. Did she set out to hurt this patient? I strongly doubt it.

I don’t think any of us believe for a second that she meant to do it. But lack of intent does not excuse sloppy nursing practice that violates standards even first year nursing students understand. The lack of intent is why she isn’t being charged with murder. She was negligent and someone died.

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2 minutes ago, Dsmcrn said:

Judge her nursing practice fine. 

But when we do that you villainize us.

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59 minutes ago, litbitblack said:

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.

Thank you!!! These people expect her to come out and beat heart to the world. We all know she has a legal muzzle on! Again, a lot of judging here of her as a person. Judge her practice during this incident. Anything else beyond that is speculation and unfair

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
1 minute ago, Wuzzie said:

I don’t think any of us believe for a second that she meant to do it. But lack of intent does not excuse sloppy nursing practice that violates standards even first year nursing students understand. The lack of intent is why she isn’t being charged with murder. She was negligent and someone died.

I understand that; where did I say she wasn't responsible for every single action? I am thinking about intent in the context of a murder charge. I am not a lawyer (obviously), but I always thought that murder required intent. This sounds more like... what, involuntary manslaughter? Murder lite? I dunno. She screwed up, no doubt, and she admits it. I am just musing over coffee. ☕

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14 minutes ago, Pixie.RN said:

How comfortable would any of us be if she came in to give us an IV medication with an unlabeled syringe? Would you let her?

Like many people, I struggle with the effort it took to make this error - not just one step to override. Reconstituting a powder. Having to calculate to reconstitute it for a specific dose. Reading her own account that their staffing was good and she was comfortable with her assignment. There is no doubt that she made several large errors.

But then I come back to intent. Did she set out to hurt this patient? I strongly doubt it. In my mind, this is similar to someone texting and driving and hitting a pedestrian. They didn't mean to do it, but the result is the same. So I hope she has sought counseling to deal with what she did (in her statement she admits that she knows she messed up), and I also hope they find appropriate resolution on the legal side in the right proportion to her intent.

She stated she has in the CMS report

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6 minutes ago, Pixie.RN said:

I understand that; where did I say she wasn't responsible for every single action? I am thinking about intent in the context of a murder charge. I am not a lawyer (obviously), but I always thought that murder required intent. This sounds more like... what, involuntary manslaughter? Murder lite? I dunno. She screwed up, no doubt, and she admits it. I am just musing over coffee.

Sorry, I wasn’t clear I know you didn’t say that but Pixie she isn’t being charged with murder. She is being charged with reckless homicide because Tennessee doesn’t have a provision for negligent homicide. Homicide does not require intent.

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2 minutes ago, Pixie.RN said:

I understand that; where did I say she wasn't responsible for every single action? I am thinking about intent in the context of a murder charge. I am not a lawyer (obviously), but I always thought that murder required intent. This sounds more like... what, involuntary manslaughter? Murder lite? I dunno. She screwed up, no doubt, and she admits it. I am just musing over coffee. ☕

Some are on a witch hunt here and tear our comments apart. Intent is the key word! There was no intent. If so she would have tossed the drug instead of save it to accurately waste with another nurse. If there was intent she wouldn’t have gone straight in the patient room with code in progress to state her mistake.

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1 minute ago, Dsmcrn said:

Some are on a witch hunt here and tear our comments apart. Intent is the key word! There was no intent. If so she would have tossed the drug instead of save it to accurately waste with another nurse. If there was intent she wouldn’t have gone straight in the patient room with code in progress to state her mistake. 

Not one person has said she intended to do this including myself. Where are you coming up with this stuff?

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