RaDonda Vaught's Arraignment - Guilty or Not of Reckless Homicide and Patient Abuse?

[tnbutterfly - Mary]

A group of nurses plans to appear in their scrubs at Vaught's arraignment hearing on February 20th show their support. Included in this group is Janie Harvey Garner, founder of Show Me Your Stethoscope.

For those who are interested in showing their support by attending the arraignment, here are the details:

When?

Wednesday, February 20 @ 9:00 AM

Where?

Justice A. A. Birch Building

408 2nd Ave N,

Court Room 6D

Nashville, TN 37201

Judge: Jennifer Smith

What is Arraignment?

Once the accused is represented by counsel, the more formal part of the arraignment, the reading of the charges, takes place. The accused is expected to enter a plea: usually guilty, not guilty, or no contest. The no-contest plea means that the accused is not admitting guilt but will not contest the charges.

What is the verdict going to be???

In the following video, Janie Harvey Garner talks more about the arraignment process.

UPDATED TO ADD VIDEO RE. RADONDA VAUGHT'S NOT GUILTY PLEA

Nurse Gives Lethal Dose of Vecuronium Instead of Versed

Nurse Charged With Homicide

Nurses Call the Governor of Tennessee

[Anonymous865]

29 minutes ago, Anonymous865 said:

That's the article.

Here's the letter for anyone who can't access it.

STATE OF TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

DIVISION OF HEALTH LICENSURE AND REGULATION

OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS

Metro Center 665 Mainstream Drive, Second Floor

Nashville, TN 37243

615-741-8485 or 1-800-852-2187

[email protected]

October 23, 2018

PERSONAL CONFIDENTIAL 7005 3110 0001 7274 7346

Radpmda Vaught a

Re: Disposition of Complaint No.

Dear Ms. Vaught,

Thank you for the work you have done with us through this necessary process. A complaint, which was filed against you, was forwarded to the Board Consultant for disposition after investigation. After a review by the Board's Consultant and a staff attorney for the Tennessee Department of Health, a decision was made that this matter did not merit further action.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the outcome. This is not a disciplinary action, and no record of it will appear in your licensure file.

As you can appreciate, this Office has the statutory duty to investigate any allegation received against a practitioner licensed and/or certified under Title 63 of the Tennessee Code Annotated. The purposes for the investigative process are to maintain the administration and enforcement of the laws regulating your practice and to ensure that the citizens of Tennessee receive good quality health care from all practitioners.

Please accept our sincere appreciation for your cooperation in the resolution of this matter.

Sincerely,

Antoinette Welch, Esq.

Director

Office of Investigations

Tennessee Department of Health

AW: be

Complaint No,

CORRECTED to add NOT

[Anonymous865]

59 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:

Something stood out for me on the GoFundMe page. RV had commented that she didn't know how long it would be before she was able to work again. I presume she meant work as a nurse.

It reminded me of jail inmates I had to assess for suicidal thinking due to being charged with particularly heinous crimes. I recall 2 separate inmates (neither one with any criminal history) both saying "No, I just want this to be over with, so I can go home." I was shocked at how disconnected they were from the severity of their crimes, both of which involved someone being killed.

For me, the GoFundMe page demonstrated the same level of disconnect.

To me what shows a tremendous disconnect is the photo she chose for her gofundme page. She is all dolled-up and sitting in her husband's lap at a party/celebration.

She is trying to raise money to defend herself after killing Charlene Murphy. Sam Murphy will never again touch his wife of 50+ years. Even after more than a year Sam Murphy "is too upset to talk about his wife" with reporters.

She and all her supporters seem to have forgotten Charlene, Sam, and their family.

A less festive photo for her gofundme page would have been more appropriate and respectful.

[JKL33]

@Anonymous865 and @mtmkjr - thank you for posting the letter.

45 minutes ago, Anonymous865 said:

Just curious - Why do you think there is bad blood between Mr. Funk and Ms. Welch?

Perhaps there are no lingering hard feelings. I believe she was fired from the DA's office in the months after he took over for reasons that do not seem entirely clear.

[Anonymous865]

2 hours ago, JKL33 said:

@Anonymous865 and @mtmkjr - thank you for posting the letter.

Perhaps there are no lingering hard feelings. I believe she was fired from the DA's office in the months after he took over for reasons that do not seem entirely clear.

I didn't know that. That is very interesting.

[LilPeanut, MSN, RN, NP]

2 hours ago, Anonymous865 said:

A less festive photo for her gofundme page would have been more appropriate and respectful.

I really agree that the photo seemed really in poor taste. a professional photo perhaps, or even a posed family photo would have been a better choice. I'm sure the intention was to humanize her, but it still contributes to the air of her not caring for what she's done.

[Karen_tn_37211]

She went and immediately got another job in an ICU. I would be devastated and need time off. I might eventually go back to work doing another kind of nursing, or even something outside of nursing. I most certainly couldn't jump right back in.

[Duranie]

On 2/27/2019 at 7:29 AM, Wuzzie said:

^ This about a million times over. Why do people think that nurses get a pass? It baffles me.

Here's another recent example. A police officer was inspecting an overflowing manhole in the dark and the pouring rain (hence the overflowing manhole). A driver, who bypassed warning signs, didn't see him and mowed him down. Now he is dead. The last thing I saw in the news about this was an average looking, middle-aged woman in prison orange and shackles going before a judge for vehicular homicide. Surely she did not plan on going out that evening and intentionally plowing into someone but it happened and she is being held responsible. Why should RV be held to a different standard?

Exactly....

Whether you call something an accident, or a mistake, or whatever term you want to use.... actions have consequences!

I particularly like your example, Wuzzie. Because it almost perfectly mirrors the RV scenario—

<I wish I could make a table ... oh well, this will have to do. ?>

---

Rainy night driver (RND)— found herself in an overwhelming, unfamiliar environment while performing a task (operating a motor vehicle) that she had done before without a second thought as to her ability (she had driven before in the rain and at night and been fine)

RV— found herself needing to administer an unfamiliar drug in an unusual circumstance outside her normal work area. She didn’t give a second thought to her ability to administer IV push meds as she had done so before and everything had been fine.

---

RND — bypassed warning signs and proceeded to ignore safety rules or not perform any self-checks regarding her options in a potentially hazardous situation.

RV — bypassed the safety features of the Pyxis (i.e. manually attempted to type in the drug she wanted but failed to read the full name of the drug that came up, or note that it was different from what was ordered); ignored the warning signs in her way (i.e. the safety alerts on the medication vials, the unusual nature of the way the vec had to be prepared which was very different than versed.); missed performing necessary checks (i.e. 5 rights)

---

RND — Caused the death of a police officer as a direct result of her unintentional, yet careless actions while performing a task (driving) in a high-risk situation, where a responsible driver should reasonably be expected to increase their attention and be even more careful and alert to potential hazards. Up to, and including pulling over for a “Time-out” to review the situation, and determine the safest way to proceed with the least risk possible.

RV — caused the death of a patient as a direct result of her unintentional, yet careless actions while performing a nursing task (IV med administration) in a unusual — and therefore higher-risk— setting, where a responsible nurse should reasonably be expected to exercise even more care and attention to the details of her task and be especially alert to potential dangers to the patient. Up to, and including looking up meds that they are unfamiliar with and monitoring the patient more closely, or even calling a “time-out” to review that the order was correct and followed properly, and that care was being given in the safest way possible to minimize potential risk of harm

---

RND — faces criminal charges because her actions, although unintentional and without malice, caused the death of another person.

RV — faces criminal charges because her actions, although unintentional and without malice, caused the death of another person.

---

So— questions to those who are so shocked and up-in-arms that RV is being prosecuted:

❓Why does the fact that RV is a nurse have any bearing on the consequences she should face as a result of her actions?

She did not provide responsible care to a patient....plain and simple. The fact that she’s a nurse only matters because it provides an explanation for why she was in the situation in the first place.

Even without malicious intent, when an ‘’accidental” death could have been avoided by exercising appropriate care and applying basic safety measures, it really shouldn’t be a shouldn’t be a big surprise when charges are brought for manslaughter of some sort— no matter what your job is or whether or not the “accident” happened at work.

❓Do you think that no one , in any occupation, who causes an accidental death in the course of their job, should ever face prosecution, even when it’s a result of (non-malicious) gross negligence?

❓What about negligent deaths that happen because people are so wrapped up in their own world, careless and stupid.... like someone speeding through a school zone, from my earlier example? Should they face charges?

[guest584920]

On 2/22/2019 at 2:49 PM, Wuzzie said:

1. RV is an ICU nurse giving an anxiolytic not sedative dose of Versed.

2. Electronically monitoring not required. RV should have observed patient after administration for adverse effects as a prudent nurse would after giving any IV push med.

3. She was the ICU resource nurse.

4. She wasn't doing sedation she was giving an anxiolytic.

5. The standards of prudent nursing care.

6. She had no other patients assigned to her.

7. Personal accountability ie. don't schedule yourself too many days in a row.

8. Doesn't matter. We are to provide safe nursing care for the entirety of our shift.

9. Multiple which she totally ignored.

10. Seriously doubt this. It might scare a few off.

11. Except outside of the criminal charges she is NOT being held accountable. Her license is active and unencumbered even after the Board investigated. Maybe this will make people realize that we aren't some sort of special group of people with carte blanche to screw up.

Ok, so we'll just blame the RN and not look at any potential system or quality issues.

It is evidence based that when organizations are punitive with med error reporting, people don't report them. Organizations that support a just culture of accountability have higher rates of incident reporting because people feel safe to report them. That enables them to improve quality and patient safety.

[Wuzzie]

1 hour ago, DaveMHA-RN said:

Ok, so we'll just blame the RN and not look at any potential system or quality issues. 

Where did I say they shouldn’t evaluate their system? Evaluate away but in this instance the system was not at fault. This nurse willfully disregarded every safety measure (put in place by the system) every warning sign (put in place by the system) and everything we are taught about medication administration. The system did not cause this. Radonda Vaught did. She and only she is responsible for her practice.

[TriciaJ, RN]

There are three current threads on this subject and each thread is several pages long. One of the threads includes a link to the CMS report which is chilling. There is a link to the GoFundMe page which some of us also find a bit chilling.

At this point it makes for cumbersome (but no less fascinating) reading. There has been a lot of back and forth as to how big a role was played by the hospital itself and if this paves the way for all of us to be criminally charged in the event of an error. Of course, anyone is allowed and encouraged to post whatever they like but it is painfully obvious when someone reads the initial post, bypasses all of the subsequent posts and throws out something that has already been discussed ad nauseum.

[Matador28]

On 2/20/2019 at 7:12 PM, Susie2310 said:

I posted the following comment to mtnNurse on two other threads. To further the discussion I thought it appropriate to post it again:

"You keep making the point that nurses brains are subject to failure because we are humans. By your logic all workers in all types of occupations should never be charged with any crime due to their negligence unless they deliberately intended to cause harm to the public.

Following your logic airline pilots brains are subject to failure at any moment during an 11 hour flight, and the plane could crash if the pilot gets overwhelmed or distracted. Think of all the many, many flights that take place all over the world, just in the course of one day, yet planes aren't crashing all over the place every day. Should we conclude that airline pilots brains function better than nurses brains? Or do airline pilots practice to higher professional standards? Nursing isn't the only profession with a lot of stressors, distractions, and responsibility/accountability.

I just had a licensed electrician work perform some work for me. Should I assume that he/she may be under extraordinary stressors and be unable to perform safely? I never thought that he/she might actually have been incompetent is his/her practice or might make a mistake that would lead to him/her ignoring basic electrical safety procedures. That perhaps he/she might be negligent to the point that I will get electrocuted. Oh, well, I guess I will just put it down to brain failure on his/her part. In which case, what is the point of professional licensure? If a licensed electrician can't perform their job safely why should I bother using his/her services?

Why bother to have any professional standards for any professions at all? Why bother with licensure? If the public can't trust that a licensed professional will be able to perform to industry standards of safety, why should they bother using the services of a licensed professional? Then we don't have professions, because everyone does the job equally incompetently/unsafely.

If you believe that nursing is a unique profession with extraordinary stressors such that nurses are unable to concentrate on their licensed activities to the point that they are unable to perform safely and must excuse themselves due to brain failure when they inadvertently harm or kill patients due to not being able to perform safely, why should anyone have any confidence in nurses ability to perform safe care? Why should the public go to hospitals?

You are saying something quite terrible, that perhaps you don't realize you are saying, and that is that the public shouldn't expect to rely on licensed professionals to meet industry safety standards. You are saying that licensed professionals shouldn't be held criminally liable for failing to meet industry safety standards; that as long as they did not deliberately intend harm they should not face criminal charges and that their lapse of judgement/unsafe performance however caused should not result in criminal charges.

I ask you a question in return, why should the public have confidence in licensed professionals? Why should I receive nursing care from you? Do you see where this goes? If the general public loses confidence that they will receive safe nursing care, do you think you can take for granted that they will continue to come to the facility you work at for their care? Do you think you might lose your job?

Licensed professions rely on the confidence of the general public. The reason licensed professionals get paid is that the general public trust in the standards of the professions and place their trust in the licensed professionals. If you can't provide safe nursing care why should I come to the facility you work at for my care? If a licensed airline pilot can't fly a plane safely, meeting industry safety standards, why should I fly with that airline? If the problem is endemic to the airline industry, why should I fly at all?"

We understand your opinion on this.  You are absolutely right about putting nurses accountable. However, criminalizing an honest mistake is probably too much.  Nurses are probably one of the most distracted profession whereas pilots and electricians are able to perform their duty with no phones ringing continuously.