Former nurse sentenced for dosing error seeks license return

A former Tennessee nurse who was convicted of homicide in a case of medication error last year which killed a patient, is seeking to have her license restored.

At the Tuesday hearing at Chancery Court in Nashville, her attorney pointed out that the Department of Health initially reviewed Vaught's errors and concluded the case "did not merit further action" in a 2018 letter. That should have been the end of the review, attorney Peter Strianse argued. Instead, about a year later, the department reversed itself, charging Vaught with unprofessional conduct and eventually revoking her license.

Strianse implied that outside pressure, including the fact that the Nashville district attorney decided to prosecute Vaught, led to the reversal, rather than any new evidence against her. The second review was a kind of improper double jeopardy, he argued.