Radonda Vaught Trial

[tnbutterfly - Mary]

"Fourteen Nashvillians were chosen Monday, March 21, 2022 to sit as a jury in the case of RaDonda Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse charged in the death of a patient. She faces charges of reckless homicide and impaired adult abuse in the 2017 death of Charlene Murphey."

For more on this story, see

Jury chosen in homicide trial of ex-Vanderbilt nurse RaDonda Vaught after fatal drug error

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

Tennessee Nurse RaDonda Vaught - Legal Perspectives of Fatal Medication Error

What do you think the verdict should/will be?

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

15 hours ago, Anonymous865 said:

In her testimony to the 2nd BON investigation, it sounds even worse.  

They asked when was the last time she had given Versed.  Radonda answered the day before the incident.

BON:  isn't Versed a controlled substance

Radonda: Yes

BON: Doesn't the ADC require you to count and confirm controlled substances?

Radonda: Yes.

BON:  When you pulled Vecuronium did you have to do a count?

Radonda: No

BON: Did that not raise a red flag for you?

Radonda: No

BON:  was the vial a different size and color from the versed vial from the day before?

Radonda: Yes

BON: Did that not raise a red flag for you?

Radonda: No

BON: When you gave Versed the day before did it have to be reconstituted?

Radonda:  No

BON:  When you saw it was a powder, did that not raise a red flag for you?

Radonda: No

BON:  Did you read the label to determine the concentration of the reconstituted powder

Radonda: No

BON:  How did you know how much to give

Radonda:  well when we give versed it is usually 1mg/ml

They also asked about her going to ED to do the swallow assessment.  It sounded like ED was next to radiology.  When she got to ED, her patient wasn't there.  

BON:  what did you do when you found the patient wasn't there?

Radonda:  went back to the neuro ICU and check with various nurses to see if they needed any help

BON:  why didn't you go back to check on your patient in radiology before returning to the unit?

Radonda:  uh 

There were so many opportunities for her to think wait something isn't right here.

Is this available in a transcript online somewhere? I had never heard she had administered versed the day before the incident. And I’m not having much luck finding that info elsewhere. 

[Wuzzie]

12 minutes ago, MunoRN said:

What defines the standard of care isn't legislated, it's set by prevailing practice.  

Yes I know. That is exactly what I said.

[OhHaiMark]

On 3/26/2022 at 11:07 PM, JKL33 said:

I disagree even after participating in these discussions and reading very sensible and compelling commentary from the other side.

They didn't cause RV not to look/read. But they contributed several other MAJOR components:

1. They run the kind of place where someone like RV freely roams, and is even given responsibilities beyond staff RN, despite having a relative small amount of experience and an even lesser degree of actual expertise. They had CM in their place of business, and they exposed her to this caliber of care, knowingly. [I give Darren a tiny break because he was on orientation, but let's not forget that their orientee RN who would soon become the newest cowboy in charge of patient care stood right there and watched RV do all this stuff with a paralytic labeled vecuronium]. Even Vanderbilt knows THEY ARE ultimately responsible, which is why they paid the hush money.

2. They run a culture where override is just another day. Where overriding for utter non-emergencies is just another day.

3. They went live with a new EMR when they were unprepared to do so and overrides were all the more needed in order to get through their stupid EMR launch (I experienced exact same frustration and response with EMR launches at various places). People might say, "But that didn't make RV not know the word midazolam and it didn't make her not read the label." That is true, but what this kind of culture does is create a very ingrained baseline where override is not a big deal. It becomes just another way to get a med. And with that, its benefit is completely lost.

4. Not only do they employ negligent employees, they employ the kind of people who run parts of the show but still don't know that an EMR isn't a magic machine, the kind of people who haven't gotten around to figuring out how to deliver care in all of the areas where care is delivered (e.g. their big money-making machine is downstairs but they can't figure out how to monitor the patients down there), the kind of people who don't document patient care, the kind of people who hire inexperienced nurses and give them (what should be considered) very lofty responsibilities, the kind of people who make sure there is a "help-all" because the staffing is otherwise too tight for nurses to deliver proper patient care, the kind of people who take evidence and leave it just laying around unsecured because they know they aren't going to report anything, the kind of people who DON'T report sentinel events, the kind of people who flout the law and just willingly refuse to follow it.  All of these types of people are crawling around that place. Yeah...you better believe they did their part to kill Charlene Murphy and others.

 

Couldn't say it better!

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

I'm part of a FB nursing group. They are all defending RV, and wringing their hands that all nurses are now going to be fired, sued, and lose their licenses for everything under the sun. When I brought up the points that she being discussed in this thread, I was disregarded as ignorant, although everyone else admitted that they'd never read any of the complaint, etc

[Emergent, RN]

4 minutes ago, Hoosier_RN said:

I'm part of a FB nursing group. They are all defending RV, and wringing their hands that all nurses are now going to be fired, sued, and lose their licenses for everything under the sun. When I brought up the points that she being discussed in this thread, I was disregarded as ignorant, although everyone else admitted that they'd never read any of the complaint, etc

ZDogg is also on that bandwagon, obviously playing to his audience, in my opinion...

 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

6 minutes ago, Hoosier_RN said:

I'm part of a FB nursing group. They are all defending RV, and wringing their hands that all nurses are now going to be fired, sued, and lose their licenses for everything under the sun. When I brought up the points that she being discussed in this thread, I was disregarded as ignorant, although everyone else admitted that they'd never read any of the complaint, etc

I’m sure everyone is in panic mode right now, but like many other things will settle down and reason prevail once the dust clears. But yeah, reading the facebook comments is wild. 

[Susie2310]

1 hour ago, MunoRN said:

What defines the standard of care isn't legislated, it's set by prevailing practice.  

And I don't think anybody is saying her practice was OK, it's that once we lose the boundaries of what is and what isn't a felony, that impairs a number of efforts we make to keep patients safe.  Having potentially more patients suffer the fate of Charlene Murphy, but with the 'upside' of being able to throw the nurse involved in jail, isn't a win for nursing or patients.

My understanding is that the standard of care is set by prevailing practice,  for example, it is common practice and considered basic safe practice to perform a certain action prior to providing a certain type of care.  However, in court, a jury still needs to determine both that the standard of care is reasonable and whether or not failing to practice according to the standard of care would result in injury to the patient.

Also, patients have a legal right to receive care that utilizes professional judgment and competence that meets the standard of care.

Your argument that once we lose the boundaries of what constitutes a felony this impairs a number of efforts to keep patients safe, doesn't make sense to me.  I am not clear what boundaries that constitute a felony you are referring to, and, even if you define this, how this would impair efforts to keep patients safe.

[Wuzzie]

18 minutes ago, Rose_Queen said:

I’m sure everyone is in panic mode right now, but like many other things will settle down and reason prevail once the dust clears. But yeah, reading the facebook comments is wild. 

I sure as heck hope so because I'm seeing things like turning the Nurses March on Washington into some sort of Radonda love fest. She's being called a freaking hero. I don't stand with Radonda and I don't want the public thinking she represents me. 

[klone, MSN, RN]

28 minutes ago, Hoosier_RN said:

I'm part of a FB nursing group. They are all defending RV, and wringing their hands that all nurses are now going to be fired, sued, and lose their licenses for everything under the sun. When I brought up the points that she being discussed in this thread, I was disregarded as ignorant, although everyone else admitted that they'd never read any of the complaint, etc

Same

2 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

I sure as heck hope so because I'm seeing things like turning the Nurses March on Washington into some sort of Radonda love fest. She's being called a freaking hero. I don't stand with Radonda and I don't want the public thinking she represents me. 

It’s driving me CRAZY because I’m currently on a 7-day mute on FB and it’s killing me that I can’t speak up. 

[MunoRN, RN]

2 hours ago, Wuzzie said:

Yes I know. That is exactly what I said.

And please forgive me if I misunderstood, but what it sounded like you were saying was that the basis of criminal charges, like negligent homicide, should not be limited to failing to meet the legal standard of care.

Take the Amiodarone black box warning for instance.  I would agree that were a bit fast-and-loose with amio, and probably do more harm than good when not truly indicated.  So if a patient gets pulmonary obliterans and dies from Amio that was given for stable Aifib, I should be able to pursue reckless homicide charges against all the nurses who willingly gave the patient Amio?

 

[Wuzzie]

12 minutes ago, klone said:

Same

It’s driving me CRAZY because I’m currently on a 7-day mute on FB and it’s killing me that I can’t speak up. 

You're in FB prison?!?

[Wuzzie]

3 minutes ago, MunoRN said:

So if a patient gets pulmonary obliterans and dies from Amio that was given for stable Aifib, I should be able to pursue reckless homicide charges against all the nurses who willingly gave the patient Amio?

No, I'm saying that if you give amio based on a palpated radial pulse without an EKG, cardio consult, monitoring, BP check and med reconciiation then yes you should most certainly be charged with reckless homicide.