A year after a jury found RaDonda Vaught guilty of negligent homicide and neglect of an impaired adult, she began receiving invitations to speak to health care audiences around the country. Vaught had been convicted for a 2017 medication error at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in which a patient, Charlene Murphey, received a powerful paralytic instead of a sedative and later died. In 2022 she was sentenced to three years of probation and lost her nursing license.
Unable to return to bedside nursing, Vaught and her husband now run a small sheep farm outside Nashville. She also discovered a new role as a speaker and safety advocate. Medical conferences, hospital groups and patient-safety organizations began booking her to recount what happened that day and to warn about system failures that can turn human mistakes into tragedy. Vaught says she hopes her talks will help hospitals design systems—especially as they rely more on automation and artificial intelligence—so errors don’t become fatal.
The speaking engagements have become Vaught’s primary income. Last year she told her story more than 20 times and is paid roughly $5,000 to $10,000 per event. That reality has drawn criticism: some nurses and members of the public say it seems like profiting from a fatal mistake, and a retired nurse wrote that such errors stain the profession.
Still, many audiences respond positively. Organizers and attendees describe Vaught as emotional and candid onstage; she confronts the details directly and often chokes up when naming the patient who died. Conference leaders have called her presentations a powerful teaching moment that helps change workplace culture and reduce the fear that discourages staff from reporting mistakes.
Vaught’s explanation stresses that the fatal outcome was not the result of a single lapse but a cascade of factors. According to court testimony and reporting, a doctor had ordered Versed, a sedative, for Murphey before an imaging procedure. Vaught searched the automated drug cabinet and typed the first letters of the drug name; when the system did not dispense, she used an override and selected the wrong medication, vecuronium, a paralyzing agent. Court records say multiple warnings appeared on the vecuronium vial, including a cap labeled “Warning: Paralyzing Agent.” Vaught also left the patient unattended.
At trial she pleaded not guilty and pointed to broader problems—an electronic health record rollout and other system issues at the hospital—that, she argued, contributed to the event. Prosecutors and a lead investigator said Vanderbilt bore some responsibility. Reporting by investigators showed the medical center did not initially notify regulators as required and told the medical examiner the death appeared natural. Vanderbilt later fired Vaught and reached a settlement with the family that restricted the family’s public comments; because the matter became a criminal case, Vaught was not bound by that settlement and has been free to speak about the incident.
The case has prompted practical changes and policy debates. The makers of two major drug-dispensing cabinet systems, Omnicell and BD, implemented updates recommended by safety organizations, such as requiring more typed characters to retrieve a drug from the cabinet to reduce look-alike errors. Many hospitals strengthened medication-administration protocols, including larger use of barcode wristband checks. Legislatures also reacted: in 2024 Kentucky passed a law that provides certain legal immunities for on-the-job medical mistakes, a measure that passed unanimously.
Responses from the nursing community have been mixed. Hundreds of nurses protested and some raised money to help Vaught with legal costs; others say the profession needs accountability and that the criminal conviction was appropriate. A nursing consultant who knew Vaught said the case inspired him to study law so he can better defend nurses, and he believes Vaught’s willingness to tell the story is therapeutic and useful for training clinicians and safety leaders.
Vanderbilt declined to comment for recent coverage about Vaught’s public speaking or what the hospital learned from the incident. Vaught continues to emphasize systems change in her talks: that humans will make mistakes, so health care systems must be designed to catch errors before they kill. Whether one views her as a cautionary example or a controversial figure, hospital leaders and safety experts say the conversation the case sparked has led to concrete steps aimed at preventing similar tragedies.
