According to News Channel 5 Nashville, Vaught injected patient Charlene Murphey with vecuronium, a paralytic drug that stopped Murphy from taking Versed to reduce stress. Murphey was admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2017 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Vaught was convicted of manslaughter and gross negligence of an adult with a disability. The court in Vaught’s case did not find her guilty of negligent homicide, for which she was initially charged. Vaught was fired from Vanderbilt Medical Center after the incident and the Tennessee Nursing Council unanimously voted to revoke her nursing license in 2021. Testifying before the Nursing Board, Vaught said she was “strict” and “distracted” in delivering the drug to Murphey. “I know the reason this patient is no longer here is because of me,” he cried. “There will never be a day that I do not think about what I did.” Prosecutor Donna Jones said Vaught’s testimony showed her guilt for the situation. “He admitted to giving it to Versed before, but never vecuronium,” Jones said. “She admitted she was detached. He admitted that he should not be distracted by anything other than medicine. He admitted that he should not have skipped the medicine “. “The unchanging fact of this case is that Charlene Murphey is dead because RaDonda Vaught could not bother to pay attention to what she did,” said Assistant Attorney General Chad Jackson. Defense witness Leanna Craft, a nurse educator at the medical center, said the hospital’s culture may have helped Vaught confuse the situation. “We have a lot of younger nurses out there doing a lot, you know, following the doctors’ instructions and what others are telling them. They do not have much experience, as they can make many independent decisions. “They do make independent decisions, but they tend to look at orders and what other people in the unit tend to do,” Craft said. Neuroscientist Eli Zimmerman and Davidson County Chief Medical Examiner Feng Li testified that a small dose of vecuronium may not have killed Murphy, adding that “it is in the realm of chance” that Murphy died of a brain injury rather than a brain injury. . The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Tennessee Nurses Association (TNA) issued a joint statement Friday opposing the verdict, arguing that “criminalizing medical malpractice is irritating and that this verdict sets a dangerous precedent.” “We are deeply saddened by this verdict and the damaging consequences of criminalizing honest reporting,” he said. “Providing health care is extremely complex. “It’s inevitable that mistakes will happen and systems will fail.” “This decision will have a long-term negative impact on the profession,” ANA and TNA added. Vaught will be sentenced in a Tennessee court on May 13.
