Louisville Medicine Volume 70, Issue 1 | Page 32

A SECOND OPINION

Years ago , we launched the “ Doctors ’ Lounge ” section in our publication as a space reserved for members to express their opinions or respond to other ’ s opinions . Doctors ’ lounges have been just that : a refuge for us to recharge , to meet and discuss life and cases , with colleagues . But now , with so many of us never practicing inside a hospital , we realized that this section is overdue to evolve with the times .
So , we ’ ve renamed this space “ A Second Opinion ” ( and send thanks to Dr . John David Kolter for the naming rights ).
We hope all our physician members will speak their minds freely here on both medical or non-medical issues of the day . You can get it off your chest here ; you can respond to a previous opinion ; you can sound a new alarm on some worrisome development ; you can editorialize to your heart ’ s content . You can make it short or long , sad or joking , sarcastic or somber : of course no personal attacks , and NO information that could ever , ever even come close to identifying an actual patient .
We ’ re proud to say that Louisville Medicine is a unique publication that it is written by physicians , for physicians . This space is for you and your opinions : have at it !
THE GLMS EDITORIAL BOARD RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHAT WILL BE PUBLISHED . PLEASE NOTE THAT VIEWS EXPRESSED IN A SECOND OPINION OR ANY OTHER ARTICLE IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT THOSE OF THE GREATER LOUISVILLE MEDICAL SOCIETY OR LOUISVILLE MEDICINE .

NOT MURDER , SHE WROTE by MARY BARRY , MD

Everything about the RaDonda Vaught case is a tragedy . Ms . Vaught is the Vanderbilt nurse who gave the muscle paralyzer vecuronium not the sedative Versed , and the patient stopped breathing and died . In a flaming hurry , she failed to recognize that the drug she needed was not the name of the drug she chose : she typed in “ VE ” and went with it . She overrode the warnings and pushed it IV . She was charged with and then convicted of abuse of an impaired patient and criminally negligent homicide .

“ How could she possibly ?!” said people who have never worked with medication-dispensing systems and their myriad electronic hiccups . “ Why didn ’ t she know ?!” said people who have never taught nursing students , who fail to understand their heavily-online educations and on-the-job cross-training . “ But why is this criminal and not civil malpractice ?!” said worried doctors . These charges have transformed the already chilling legal stakes for medical professionals .
But the working conditions in intensive care units - especially since March 2020 - and the hospital systems that gave rise to such working conditions , did not get their fair share of publicity or blame .
Because of the enormous demand for skilled critical care nurses when thousands of people - all at once - suddenly needed respirators , hospitals offered traveling nurses princely sums , while not paying comparable amounts to their local , loyal employees . Many
30 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE