NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A report released by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says the Vanderbilt nurse accused of killing a patient with the wrong drug admitted to it, saying she had "f----- up."
Radonda Vaught was working as a Registered Nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center when she mistakenly gave a patient the wrong drug, ultimately killing the patient.
She is no longer an employee at VUMC and was indicted by the Davidson County Grand Jury on charges of Impaired Adult Abuse and Reckless Homicide.
The report by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation explains how the mistake happened and that Vaught takes responsibility for the error.
When she went to the Accudose machine to pull the medication Versed for the patient. It wasn't pulling up in the machine; so she said she overrode the system and typed "VE" to search it and selected the first medication to pop up on the list. Vecuronium Bromide). The system asked for a reason for the override but she couldn't remember what she listed.
The report goes on to explain that Vaught checked the back of the vial but never saw the front or top of the vial, which has warnings listed. She said under the advisement of her Unit Manager, she never scanned the vial to put it into the medical record.
According to the report, Vaught said she shouldn't have been distracted with anything but the medication at the time and should not have overrode the system in order to have it dispensed.
She said she was thinking, "I probably just killed a patient...What did I do to this patient if I didn't kill her...What kind of life changing things did I just put this patient and her family through?"
A Vanderbilt University Medical Center letter says the system alerts the user that Vecuronium Bromide "might cause patient harm," "paralyzing agent" and that there were five screens she needed to go through before administering the drug.
Since the incident, Vaught has been supported by a large group of fellow nurses from throughout Tennessee and even neighboring states.
