Harvey, who was driving up from Georgia for the planned protest, said it was “terrifying” to think that she could be prosecuted for a mistake and predicted that nurses will start trying to cover up their errors rather than report them. Vaught reported her error as soon as she realized her mistake.
Vaught, 38, injected the paralyzing drug vecuronium into 75-year-old Charlene Murphey instead of the sedative Versed on Dec. 26, 2017. Vaught freely admitted to making several errors, but her defense attorney argued systemic problems at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were at least partly to blame.
At the nurse’s trial, an expert witness for the state argued that Vaught violated the standard of care expected of nurses. In addition to grabbing the wrong medicine, she failed to read the name of the drug, did not notice a red warning on the top of the medication, and did not stay with the patient to check for an adverse reaction, nurse legal consultant Donna Jones said.
Leanna Craft, a nurse educator at the neurological intensive care unit where Vaught worked, testified that it was common for nurses at that time to override the system in order to get drugs. The hospital had recently updated an electronic records system, which led to delays in retrieving medications. There was also no scanner in the imaging area for Vaught to scan the medication against the patient’s ID bracelet.
The jury found Vaught not guilty of reckless homicide. Criminally negligent homicide was a lesser offense included under the original charge.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
