After a three – day trial in Nashville, Tenn. RaDonda Vaught was found guilty. RaDonda Vaught, a former nurse, was legally charged with a deadly drug error in 2017. On Friday, she was found guilty of gross carelessness in the presence of an impaired person and negligent murder.
According to the Nashville district attorney’s office, Vaught stands for almost six years in jail for neglect. And she will face one to two years for negligent homicide as a person with no past convictions. On May 13, Judges sentenced Vaught, According to a representative for the district attorney.
Perhaps, the nursing staff and healthcare experts across the country are keenly following Vaught’s trial. Maybe, many fears that it would set a precedent criminalizing medical errors — usually, professional civil courts or licensing boards medical deal with mistakes in criminal trials.
According to Janie Harvey Garner, the founder of Show Me Your Stethoscope, the conviction may discourage nurses from exposing their errors. Indeed, such errors may lower the patient’s quality of care. Moreover, The American Nurses Association expressed similar worries about Vaught’s conviction. It says it sets a “poor example” by “punishing the honest reporting of mistakes.” According to the statement, some medical errors are “unavoidable,” and there are “effective ways” to handle them than criminal prosecution.
Remember!
Due to the past pandemic consequences, the nursing profession is severely under enormous strain, understaffed, and stressed. This decision will have a long – term adverse effect on the industry.
Charlene Murphey Death
Charlene Murphey, a 75 year old lady of Gallatin, Tennessee admitted to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center with a brain injury. According to judicial testimony and a federal investigative report, her condition was improving at the time of the error. Before MRI scanning, the nurse gave Murphey a sedative called Versed to help her relax. And Murphey was going to discharge from the hospital.
Unfortunately, Charlene Murphey died in late December 2017 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Sadly, Murphey injected the wrong medicine, and not even the nurse monitored her adequately.
Investigation Report
On December 24/2017, Murphey shifted to the neurological acute care unit with a brain bleed. Although doctors sought to figure out what caused the bleed ordered a PET scan to look for malignancy two days later.
Unfortunately, Vaught broke the level of care required of nurses, according to a state expert witness. Aside from picking the wrong drug. According to nurse legal consultant Donna Jones, she failed to read the drug’s label and could not spot a red warning on the front of the drug. Additionally, she did not stay with the patient to check for an adverse reaction. Unfortunately, prosecutors portrayed Vaught as a reckless and insensitive nurse. Thus, she ignored her training and neglected her patient.
RaDonda Vaught Accepted Her Mistake
Nurse RaDonda Vaught went to the medics working to resuscitate 75 year old Charlene Murphey. She told them what she had done the instant. However, Vaught honestly admitted her mistake. She also accepted that she had given the wrong prescription to a patient. Furthermore, she reported her blunder to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center within hours.
