A Tennessee nurse charged with reckless homicide after a
medication error killed a patient pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a
Nashville courtroom packed with other nurses who came in scrubs to show their
support.
The error happened at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
in December 2017 when RaDonda Vaught injected 75-year-old Charlene Murphey with
the paralytic vecuronium instead of the sedative Versed.
The 35-year-old Vaught could not find Versed in an automatic
dispensing cabinet, so she used an override mechanism to type in "VE"
then picked the first drug that came up, according to court documents and a
report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Speaking to reporters after Wednesday's hearing, Vaught's
attorney, Peter Strianse, called the criminal charge against the nurse
"completely unfathomable." He noted that the state board of nursing
has taken no action against Vaught's nursing license, which is still active.
"This sets a terrible precedent, and these nurses are
here today because it is patently unfair to charge a nurse with a criminal
offense for something that was nothing more than a mistake," Strianse
said.
Vaught did not want to discuss the case, but she and several
of the other nurses teared up as she spoke of the "overwhelming"
support she has received.
"I'm very thankful that I picked a profession with such
generous, loving people," Vaught said. Online supporters have donated more
than $72,000 for her legal bills.
Murphey's husband, Sam Murphey, reached by phone said he is
too upset to talk about his wife. Her son, Gary Murphey, told The Tennessean
newspaper earlier this month that his mother would have forgiven Vaught and
felt sorrow for her.
"I know my mom well, and she would be very upset
knowing that this lady may spend some of her life in prison," Gary Murphey
told The Tennessean. "She probably had a family, and it's destroyed their
life too."
He also said the family has no plans to sue the hospital.
Janie Harvey Garner runs the online nurse advocacy
organization Show Me Your Stethoscope. She has been organizing support for
Vaught and flew in from St. Louis for the hearing.
Garner said medication errors happen all the time but
usually the public is unaware of them. And she said nurses don't take the
errors lightly.
"RaDonda has to wake up every day and think about what
happened," Garner said. "I, early in my career, made a minor error.
No one was harmed. But every time I think about it, I sweat."
Garner said she believes Murphey's death was terrible and
tragic. But she worries Vaught's prosecution will ultimately hurt patient
safety.
"This will cause people to die, because people won't
come forward with their mistakes," Garner said…
Nurse Marguerite McBride was at the Wednesday hearing to
support Vaught and said she had worked with her at a different hospital for
about a year.
"She's an amazing, compassionate, caring nurse," McBride
said. "Families love her. Other nurses love her."
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nurse-charged-in-fatal-drug-swap-error-pleads-not-guilty
Courtesy of a colleague
See: https://childnervoussystem.blogspot.com/2016/05/medical-error.html
https://childnervoussystem.blogspot.com/2018/02/to-err-is-homicide-in-britain.html
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