Ex-Nurse Found Guilty On 2 Charges In Medication Error Death

A 38-year-old former nurse in Nashville, Tennessee, was found guilty on two charges Friday in connection to a medication error that contributed to the death of a patient in 2017.

RaDonda Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse, was convicted by a Nashville jury of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult in the death of 75-year-old Charlene Murphey, News Channel 5 Nashville reported.

Vaught was facing a charge of reckless homicide, but the jury found her guilty on a lesser charge, the report said.

Murphey died on Dec. 27, 2017, after being injected with a fatal dose of the wrong medication, The Tennessean reported.

The patient, who was admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for a brain bleed and was being treated in the ICU, was supposed to get Versed, a sedative intended to calm her before being scanned in a large, MRI-like machine.

However, Vaught accidentally grabbed from an electronic medication cabinet vecuronium, a powerful paralyzer, and administered it to Murphey. The drug stopped the patient's breathing and left her brain-dead before the error was discovered, prosecutors said.

"RaDonda Vaught acted recklessly, and Charlene Murphey died as a result of that. RaDonda Vaught had a duty of care to Charlene Murphey and RaDonda Vaught neglected that," Assistant District Attorney Chadwick Jackson told the jury in closing arguments, the Associated Press reported.

"The immutable fact of this case is that Charlene Murphey is dead because RaDonda Vaught couldn't pay attention to what she was doing," Jackson continued.

Before the jury's deliberation Friday, Vaught said she was ready for whatever outcome may happen.

"Knowing what I know now — even if the jury finds me guilty, even if Judge Smith decides that prison time is the appropriate sentencing for this and it's the maximum amount of time — I have zero regrets about telling the truth," she told The Tennessean.

Last year, Vaught admitted her mistake at a Tennessee Board of Nursing hearing, saying she became "complacent" in her job and "distracted" by a trainee while operating the automated medication dispenser. She did not shirk responsibility for the error, but she said the blame was not hers alone.

"I know the reason this patient is no longer here is because of me," Vaught was quoted as saying by People. "There won't ever be a day that goes by that I don't think about what I did."

The trial of Vaught was closely monitored by nurses and medical professionals across the country, with most wary of the case possibly setting a precedent of criminalizing medical mistakes.

Usually, medical errors are handled by professional licensing boards or civil courts. Hence, the case of Vaught, which was handled by a criminal court, is quite rare.

In the eyes of Janie Harvey Garner, the founder of Show Me Your Stethoscope, a nursing group on Facebook with more than 600,000 members, the conviction may leave a negative effect on other medical practitioners.

"Health care just changed forever," she said after the verdict, according to NPR. "You can no longer trust people to tell the truth because they will be incriminating themselves."

The American Nurses Association also issued a statement following the verdict, expressing similar concerns.

"The nursing profession is already extremely short-staffed, strained and facing immense pressure — an unfortunate multi-year trend that was further exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic," the statement said. "This ruling will have a long-lasting negative impact on the profession."

Vaught is set to be sentenced on May 13, WKRN reported. Her sentences are likely to run concurrently, said district attorney spokesperson Steve Hayslip.