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

By now, most nurses have heard about RaDonda Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse who was charged with reckless homicide and patient abuse as a result of administering the wrong drug that killed a patient in December 2017. Nurses Headlines News

Updated:  

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

5 minutes ago, Jory said:

I knew of a physician that pulled five years in prison for exchanging sex for drugs out of his clinic.

Guess what they did when he got out of prison? Gave him his license back.

Would the BON do that for an NP? Heck no they wouldn't.

The medical board completely protects MDs. I have seen families file complaints over the years for very serious infractions that you would think at minimum, would result in probation. In most cases, they do nothing.

You just have to look at the way hospitals and medical boards protect physicians who sexually abuse patients to see that. They don't care if they are abusing children or women.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/76948

Apparently voters don't care if physicians commit sexual misconduct either.

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2012/nov/16/scott-desjarlais-supported-ex-wifes-abortions/92999/

The board fined him $250 for each patient he had sex with.

1 Votes
Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.
29 minutes ago, Anonymous865 said:

You just have to look at the way hospitals and medical boards protect physicians who sexually abuse patients to see that. They don't care if they are abusing children or women.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/76948

Apparently voters don't care if physicians commit sexual misconduct either.

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2012/nov/16/scott-desjarlais-supported-ex-wifes-abortions/92999/

The board fined him $250 for each patient he had sex with.

That is absolutely horrifying and really damages my faith in boards.

I was taught in nursing school that having sex with a patient is essentially rape because of the position of power you are in over them. It should be prosecuted criminally and there should not be "second chances". If you do it, you lose your license.

1 Votes
13 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

It's a little fuzzy, IMO. But basically, the other nurse informed her nearby to the providers. She was not the one who discovered it.

Yeah, I didn't think it was fuzzy. It says she walked into the room and informed the providers after the error was brought to her attention by another RN. Not that an NP informed her of her error.

13 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

I am not as impressed by the "cover up" as others clearly are. There was one doc who hedged to the ME about a med error, likely trying to protect the nurse.

Hm. I think it's as unacceptable as everything RV did; to think otherwise is utterly incongruent. Everyone remotely involved knew it was an ME case. It would never not be an ME case. It wasn't hedging, it was a bald-faced lie - there was no 'hearsay that she might have received a wrong medication' or whatever the ME was told. She DID receive it, and they all knew it, and they knew their working dx was (something like) anoxic brain injury directly secondary to the event. There is no excuse for not informing the ME. They had some time to think about it, too. One single person doesn't just spontaneously get on the phone and report this the way it was reported. That was planned. If it wasn't, then as soon as everyone else who is clearly expecting it to be an ME case finds out that the ME isn't interested, they would say, "Uh....wait a minute...why is that?....Are they aware of _________?"

2 Votes
Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.
10 hours ago, JKL33 said:

Yeah, I didn't think it was fuzzy. It says she walked into the room and informed the providers after the error was brought to her attention by another RN. Not that an NP informed her of her error.

Hm. I think it's as unacceptable as everything RV did; to think otherwise is utterly incongruent. Everyone remotely involved knew it was an ME case. It would never not be an ME case. It wasn't hedging, it was a bald-faced lie - there was no 'hearsay that she might have received a wrong medication' or whatever the ME was told. She DID receive it, and they all knew it, and they knew their working dx was (something like) anoxic brain injury directly secondary to the event. There is no excuse for not informing the ME. They had some time to think about it, too. One single person doesn't just spontaneously get on the phone and report this the way it was reported. That was planned. If it wasn't, then as soon as everyone else who is clearly expecting it to be an ME case finds out that the ME isn't interested, they would say, "Uh....wait a minute...why is that?....Are they aware of _________?"

No, I said the other RN discovered it and told her. I never said that an NP told her, or if I did, it was a typo.

It is actually just one single person who gets on the phone and reports it, spontaneously, after the death is called.

I've worked with enough residents/fellows doing the death calls to the ME to know they get nervous making the calls and are typically on their own when doing it. No one in administration is helping them. When a patient dies, any patient, you have to call the ME's office, answer the questions, you also have to call UNOS, every time, whether they are organ donation candidate or not. No one else would necessarily know whether it was sent to the ME or not until much later. It's part of a death packet that the physician who is there when the pt. dies fills out, then sends along. And some physicians might be worried about liability or throwing someone under the bus or something else, and that's why it was hedged. The ME should have probed more with the possibility of a med error, and the doc definitely shouldn't have hedged - but looking in hindsight, it is easier to say they knew for sure it was from med error, instead of wondering whether it was unit gossip vs truth.

Now, Vanderbilt should have followed up on it, and they also should have reported it through other means, but that call to the ME's office was a decision by a physician, not the administration. I've made those calls before, I've watched others make those calls.

0 Votes
7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

No, I said the other RN discovered it and told her. I never said that an NP told her, or if I did, it was a typo.

That's right, my apologies; it was another poster who said RV was informed of the error by the NP. I'm sorry for erroneously attributing that statement to you. What you said was along the line that everyone, including RV, was in the room together when the error was announced by someone else. I don't mean to belabor the issue, but at the time it seemed like the theme in that general section of the thread was that there were aspersions to be cast based on the (incorrect) idea that she took no part in disclosing the error. Maybe I misunderstood.

7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

It is actually just one single person who gets on the phone and reports it, spontaneously, after the death is called.

Yes, I am very familiar with the process.

7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

I've worked with enough residents/fellows doing the death calls to the ME to know they get nervous making the calls and are typically on their own when doing it. No one in administration is helping them. When a patient dies, any patient, you have to call the ME's office, answer the questions, you also have to call UNOS, every time, whether they are organ donation candidate or not.

I'm under no delusion that anyone from administration was helping dial the phone or standing there at the time of the call, and I understand that house staff are often making these calls in a rather impromptu manner. But everyone on that team in any way involved with her care, including some administration personnel within and outside of the unit, were well aware of the circumstances leading up to this death. If this was a simple matter that the whole thing was left to a random house staff member with no guidance and that nervousness or naïveté then came into play, the more likely result of either of those two things would have been the opposite. That is to say, not knowing any better or being nervous about lying about something so significant should quite naturally produce the simple truth.

It is likely that the problem of what all to do about this was on quite a few radars. The report notes that RV informed the two providers, the charge nurse, the clinical staff leader, the nurse manager, and risk management. The NP made an initial note of having received the patient back to the unit s/p ROSC and noted "Current facility-administered medications - vecuronium." Even the family was informed there was an error with a wrong medication that 'might have' affected pt's breathing. The fact that facility representatives chose to soften their speech at times doesn't mean they didn't know what was going on. All of this is generally the type of thing that is passed on in House Admin report as well for various purposes.

So then there are two basic options for how this ends up not getting reported to the ME correctly - the particular method of lying was advised, or else there is just little knowledge, oversight and guidance regarding their general duties to patients and the public altogether. This particular piece of it was the one thing that should not have been difficult for the same reason RV walked into the patient's room and announced the error. It's just a fact, there's really no use hiding it.

7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

No one else would necessarily know whether it was sent to the ME or not until much later.

I feel fairly safe in saying that is not correct at all - at least it most certainly isn't in my region. You must have a general yes/no from both the ME and UNOS - it's part of handling the body correctly and even of filling out the balance of the paperwork itself. The ME is told all known circumstances of the death and makes a decision in accordance with the known facts/circumstances or, if they need more info they send an investigator in short order. It isn't just a matter of doing a task disconnected with everything else - what other people need to do next depends upon the answers received. I have made these calls and have also been on the "acting upon the information received" end of things countless times, too.

But beyond just the staff immediately present at the time of death, the medical service chain of command, the nursing chain of command and Risk/Legal, and hospital admin should have had a vested interest in ensuring that procedures such as this were being properly followed along the way, especially under the circumstances. The fact that they didn't have an interest in ensuring t's and i's to all extents possible after such a spectacular (reckless) error that occurred inside their walls is really kind of mysterious, isn't it?

7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

And some physicians might be worried about liability or throwing someone under the bus or something else, and that's why it was hedged. The ME should have probed more with the possibility of a med error, and the doc definitely shouldn't have hedged - but looking in hindsight, it is easier to say they knew for sure it was from med error, instead of wondering whether it was unit gossip vs truth.

It was not "gossip" - it was told point-blank to providers on the team by the person who committed the error and it was acknowledged in all subsequent events and conversations and medical decision-making as reported in the CMS report - except during the call to the ME, where it was described as hear-say.

Physician #3 supposedly called the report to the ME, but doesn't remember whether s/he mentioned that the patient received a paralytic that may have contributed to her death. Also doesn't remember any of the questions/answers from the ME conversation.

The ME's office says they received the report from Physician #1 who stated there was a possibility of a med error, but that idea was undocumented and was hear-say.

By TN law, they were required to properly notify the ME of this since it directly meets the definition for a death that was not natural, which, among other things, is any death involving "a discrete identifiable event or object external to the decedent"

"The mandatory reporters of such deaths are listed as “any physician, undertaker, law enforcement officer, or other person having knowledge of the death.” T.C.A.§ 38-7-108. (Pg. 21-22 contain relevant info).

Now you and I both know that all of that doesn't mean that they are allowed to call the ME and then not make it clear that there are known circumstances that very clearly disqualify this from being called a natural death.

7 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

[...]but looking in hindsight, it is easier to say they knew for sure it was from med error [...]

This isn't a case of anyone being judged too harshly via use of a retrospectoscope. They knew easily within an hour of the incident the main facts that didn't come out to everyone else for nearly a year. They drew appropriate conclusions and treated the medical case accordingly in real time. The whole thing start to finish was done and over in under 12 hrs. ?

2 Votes
3 minutes ago, Karen_tn_37211 said:

No action taken on license

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2019/02/25/radonda-vaught-after-vanderbilt-nurse-error-health-officials-said-discipline-not-needed/2961464002/

Holy crap. No education needed? Nothing? What a joke. She overrode the pyxes, grabbed the first thing that popped up, pushed it in a patent and walked way and admits she never even looked at the label.

No wonder the DA brought charges. Somebody has protect patients from her.

I hope I'm never in a Tennessee hospital. jeez

3 Votes
57 minutes ago, Karen_tn_37211 said:

No action taken on license

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2019/02/25/radonda-vaught-after-vanderbilt-nurse-error-health-officials-said-discipline-not-needed/2961464002/

That's the Department of Health..?

1 Votes
2 hours ago, Luchador said:

Holy crap. No education needed? Nothing? What a joke. She overrode the pyxes, grabbed the first thing that popped up, pushed it in a patent and walked way and admits she never even looked at the label.

No wonder the DA brought charges. Somebody has protect patients from her.

I hope I'm never in a Tennessee hospital. jeez

Apparently in Tennessee it's really, really, really hard to lose your license.

What is really scary - if the board decides not to take action, the complaint is never made public. There is no way to know how many similar or even worse nurses were reported and the board decided not to take action.

I've been reading through their Disciplinary Action Reports.

Cynthia Leigh Clemons APRN, RN and Courtney Newman APRN, RN were indicted in 2016 for being part of the region's largest drug distribution and money laundering ring. The ring made $21 million in profit during just 4 years. The ring is accused of distributing "billions of opiates."

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/01/19/rico-indictment-opiate-pill-mill-east-tennessee/1049174001/

Both appeared before the board in 2018, because they didn't report their indictment to the board.

The board fined one $50 and the other $100. They put restrictions on their licenses - They can't work in a pain clinic and they can't prescribe controlled substances.

Both are still working.

0 Votes
Specializes in Prior Auth, SNF, HH, Peds Off., School Health, LTC.
On 2/22/2019 at 10:18 AM, mtnNurse. said:

as people have copied in other threads what reckless homicide means, and by using those definitions, the mindlessness her behavior exhibits is what indicates she is not guilty of reckless homicide

Recklessness and mindlessness go hand-in-hand, though.

I’d like to present a hypothetical situation:

Let’s imagine, that like most people, I have a thousand things I need to do on what is a particularly stressful day— so I get in my car and as I begin to drive, my mind is on all the things I’ve got going on in my life.... let’s say, I’ve got to get to the pharmacy to get the Rx for my puking kid; and I have to go to the bank to make a deposit so the mortgage payment clears; plus I’m thinking about the parent-teacher conference that I’ve got to reschedule because a schedule change at work means I can’t keep the appointment I set up 2 weeks ago; then, as I clench my teeth, I realize that I’ve got a loose crown, so now I’ve got to remember to call the dentist; and that sets my mind reeling because I know that when our new benefit year starts next week, I’m gonna be paying even more out-of-pocket costs and how are we gonna afford that, and then I think, well, maybe I can refill my own ‘scripts a couple days early and hopefully have the lower copay one last time; and—and—and ?....

So as my brain is on overload as I drive, I mindlessly fail to slow down in a school zone, and hit a child in the crosswalk, who then dies.....

In my scenario, it seems clear that I was a negligent & reckless driver, and of course, I established that was acting mindlessly. But, I had no intent to kill anyone.... I didn’t purposely get in my car with a plan to mow down the first pedestrian I could find. There was no malice aforethought, as it were. Everything I was trying to accomplish at that moment centered around being the best wife-mother-caregiver I could be for my family— coping with all the stresses that get piled on us all at some time or another— And then.... <snaps fingers> I killed a child.... in my mindlessness!

You can bet your sweet patootie that I would be arrested and charged with something... whether that be negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter, reckless homicide, involuntary manslaughter, or another similar crime. And I don’t think I should expect a judge or jury to care one iota about all the stuff going on in my life that I was juggling at the time of the “accident”. In what world would anyone believe that a reasonable consequence for such mindless actions would be having my driver’s license revoked, my car taken away, and/or be publicly lectured on the importance of paying attention in high-risk situations.

{Personally, I’d never be able to get behind the wheel of a car ever again, even if somehow I were deemed not to be at fault. And I surely wouldn’t be out car shopping (i.e. interviewing for/ taking a new job)....:( }

I truly don’t understand how someone can argue that negligence/ recklessness and criminality are mutually exclusive.:bored: :down:

If an electrician negligently wires an outlet in such a way that someone plugging in their hairdryer ends up being electrocuted........or if a contractor fails to check the quality of building materials being used in construction and the structure later collapses and kills someone.........or if an exterminator doesn’t pay attention to where they’re spraying the insecticide and accidentally sprays it in a baby’s crib or play area, poisoning them........

In situations like those I list above, the person responsible for the error/ oversight/ negligence has been prosecuted for some form of manslaughter. There is precedent.

So then, when a nurse fails to administer a medication properly in accordance with established and accepted protocols and the patient dies as a result ... shouldn’t there be an expectation of being held to account for the death that was preventable by adherence to simple procedures and checks rather than going about in a “mindless rush” giving drugs which she claims to have been unfamiliar with?

When you undertake to do a job that requires you to be focused on the task at hand— no matter what that “job” is.... nurse, doctor, electrician, driver, whatever— the onus is on you to: #1, know what you are doing and #2 take the necessary steps to insure that you do that job properly and safely. If you choose— through mindlessness— to do the job in an unfocused and unsafe manner, then you have to accept that there are consequences for that. Where someone is harmed or killed as a result of mindlessness or negligence in your actions, I think it’s reasonable for a prosecutor to review the case and potentially bring criminal charges. ?

On 2/22/2019 at 10:18 AM, mtnNurse. said:

Criminal court should be reserved for malicious criminals.

So then, going back to my hypothetical scenario— a driver who unitentinally speeds through a school zone that they failed to notice while in a “mindless rush” to attend to the “impossible workload” they find themselves saddled with that day, and as a result runs over someone and kills them (doesn’t even have to be a child, let’s say it’s the crossing guard)..... by your thought process the driver wouldn’t face any criminal charges because there was no malice????

What, then, should the consequence be?? A speeding ticket? or maybe one for failure to yield to a pedestrian? How about a suspended license? :

You must realize that not all criminals are malicious.....? :down:

5 Votes

^ 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?

4 Votes
On 2/25/2019 at 10:45 PM, Karen_tn_37211 said:

No action taken on license

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2019/02/25/radonda-vaught-after-vanderbilt-nurse-error-health-officials-said-discipline-not-needed/2961464002/

The article references a letter from the DOH/BON which clears up the rumor that they had investigated and done nothing.

It is really disappointing that it's true. Appalling.

1 Votes
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