News

                              Nurse charged with homicide.

Early this month (Feb 2019) Radonda Vaught, RN who was employed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center  was indicted for directly causing a fatal medication error. On December 28, 2017 the medication error occurred, but was not made publicly known until this past November, 2018 after a federal investigation.

Apparently the nurse was ordered to administer Versed to a patient who was being treated for a subdural hematoma requiring a full body scan. The patient suffered from severe claustrophobia which was the rationale for the ordered Versed. Versed ws not given. Instead, the paralytic Vecuronium was administered prior to the scan that lasted approx 30 min. CPR was initiated once the patient was found not breathing.

The most concerning part of this story is that it was found that the nurse was unable to find the Versed in the medication pyxis and she chose OVERRIDE (Red Flag 101) which enabled her access to more powerful medications. She started typing V E and when she did not see Versed as an option she chose VECuronium!

I can’t imagine how tragic this was for everyone involved. I have to admit, I also feel terrible for this nurse. Yes, safegaurds were put in place to avoid the wrong medication to be dispensed, but humans will continue to make mistakes. Medication errors are a nurses greatest and gravest fear and safegaurds on medication pumps and medication dispensement systems are there to help protect us and the patient. Anytime the question to over-ride pops up we should always take a step back and clarify the order and the 5 patient rights. I don’t agree with the charges as they are criminal charges (reckless homicide!). I doubt the nurse intended to harm let alone end the life of a patient. Very tragic. What are your thoughts? Also, if you have experienced a medication error let’s talk about it.