Homicide Verdict for Nurse in Medical Error Case Stuns Nurses and Advocacy Groups

Former nurse RaDonda Vaught has been found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in a case that has shaken the nursing profession to its core.

Photo by Vladimir Fedotov on Unsplash.

If you know any nurses, if you’ve spent even a moment on social media over the past six months, you’ve probably already heard the story of former nurse RaDonda Vaught.

It’s every patient’s worst nightmare; it’s every medical practitioner’s worst nightmare, too: A reasonably healthy person goes into the hospital for a medical procedure, receives the wrong medication by mistake and dies before anyone can save them.

It isn’t an unknown scenario: Medical errors cost thousands of lives every year. Avoiding medical errors are the reason surgeons often use checklists in the operating room. Medical errors are the reason medical malpractice insurance is so expensive and the reason Elizabeth Holmes was able to bilk investors out of a large fortune with the pie-in-the-sky promises of Theranos.

Holmes claimed to have invented a medical device that would allow advanced technology to scan a drop of someone’s blood and diagnose them beyond the shadow of a doubt. This miracle machine would, it was fervently hoped, be less fallible than human beings.

Legendary con-man Frank Abagnale, of “Catch Me if You Can” fame, is still in the fraud business after all these years. These days, he consults for law enforcement agencies and corporations to help protect them from criminals.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, Abagnale claims it is easier than ever to perpetrate the kinds of fraud he used to get away with decades ago, in spite of all the technological advancements, watermarks, and other safeguards invented since then.

“Sure, fraud-detection technology is better,” he tells his nervous clients. “But people are just as gullible and fallible as ever.”

Corporations are right to be nervous. There is hacking, ransomware, and the kinds of massive, widespread losses Covid19 aid programs are glumly reporting this week. Not only will authorities not be able to recoup billions lost to fraud, they admit we may never even know how much was taken.