STAT+: RaDonda Vaught, former Vanderbilt nurse who accidentally killed patient, says hospital issues contributed, too
A now-former nurse convicted of accidentally killing a patient says, in addition to her own missteps, issues at a Vanderbilt hospital contributed to the tragedy.
Speaking before a virtual audience of CommonSpirit Health employees, RaDonda Vaught, the former nurse who accidentally killed a patient by administering the wrong medication, listed the outside factors she claims contributed to her fatal error. Among them: a missing drug order, a faulty medication dispenser, and a hurricane that hampered the drug supply.
A Tennessee judge convicted Vaught of two felonies in 2022, and the controversial case became a rallying cry for nurses who warned it would discourage clinicians from admitting mistakes. Her closely watched trial centered on both the human errors and the shortcomings at Vanderbilt University Medical Center that may have contributed to the 75-year-old patient’s death in 2017. But in her Zoom presentation on Tuesday, Vaught spent more time emphasizing the latter.
During her talk, Vaught acknowledged having made the critical error of pulling the wrong drug for the patient, Charlene Murphey. But even after selecting the paralyzing agent vecuronium instead Versed, the sedative the patient had been prescribed, Vaught admitted she had other chances to check her work, such as looking more closely at the vial.
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