A former nurse in Tennessee has been convicted in the accidental death of a patient after she injected her with a paralyzing drug instead of a sedative.
RaDonda Vaught, 38, was convicted by a jury Friday of criminal negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult after a three-day trial in Nashville closely watched by medical professionals, The Tennessean reported.
Vaught, a former nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was indicted in the December 2017 death of Charlene Murphey, whom she injected with the powerful paralyzing drug vecuronium, instead of a dose of a sedative called Versed.
Former Tennessee nurse RaDonda Vaught was convicted in the accidental death of a patient whom she injected with the wrong drug.Stephanie Amador/The Tennessean via AP, Pool
Prosecutors said the unintentional drug switch-up left Murphey unable to breathe. The 75-year-old woman died a day after the injection left her brain-dead.
Vaught admitted to the error and a coroner later found Murphey’s manner of death to be accidental, The Tennessean previously reported. The woman had initially checked into the hospital with a subdural hematoma.
“I am just relieved that this portion of the process is over,” Vaught told reporters Friday. “I hope that they are also just as relieved to be moving away from this process that has been held up in the legal system for four and a half years.”
Vaught injected patient Charlene Murphey with the paralyzing drug vecuronium instead of the sedative Versed in December 2017.Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP, Pool
Prosecutors accused Vaught of disregarding warnings when she grabbed the wrong drug from an electronic dispensing cabinet that required her to search for it by name.
“This wasn’t an accident or mistake as it’s been claimed,” Assistant District Attorney Chad Jackson told jurors. “There were multiple chances for RaDonda Vaught to just pay attention.”
Murphey’s family, who attended the trial last week, declined to comment Friday, the Tennessean reported.
Murphy’s daughter-in-law Chandra Murphey testifying at the trial in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 22, 2022.Stephanie Amador/The Tennessean via AP, Pool
Vaught and her attorney had claimed she was being wrongly blamed after Vanderbilt became the subject of a surprise inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Someone has to pay the price, and it’s really easy to say, ‘Just let her do it,’” Vaught said prior to the verdict. “Nurses see that. Medics see it. Radiology technicians see it.”
Vaught’s sentencing has been set for May 13. She faces three to six years in prison for the gross neglect conviction and one to two years for criminally negligent homicide.
The former nurse’s sentences are likely to run concurrently, a Davidson County District Attorney’s Office spokesman told NPR.
Vaught was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult.Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP, Pool 
Vaught faces up to eight years in prison at her sentencing in May.Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP, Pool
A nursing advocacy group, meanwhile, fears the “shocking” verdict puts the future of the profession at risk.
“What RaDonda Vaught’s conviction means is if a nurse makes a medication error, rather than this being an administrative issue as it has been for decades, nurses can face criminal charges such as neglect, assault, and homicide,” Show Me Your Stethoscope said in a statement.
The group’s founder said what happened to Vaught could’ve happened to anyone in such a demanding job.
“What’s happened here is that health care has been completely changed,” founder Janie Harvey Garner told the Associated Press. “Now when we tell the truth, we’re incriminating ourselves.”
With Post wires