Nurses and other supporters raised more than $38,000 in two days to cover RaDonda Vaught's administrative fees from the Tennessee Board of Nursing, according to NewsChannel 5 Nashville.
Ms. Vaught, 38, was sentenced to three years of supervised probation May 13 for a fatal medication error she made in 2017 while working as a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Ms. Vaught, who lost her nursing license in 2021, faced $35,967.04 in legal and administrative fees from the Tennessee Board of Nursing, along with a $3,000 civil penalty. A fundraising campaign launched this week on Facebook brought in more than 1,000 donations, many from nurses across the country who've been closely watching her case.
Becca Francis Ray, a friend of Ms. Vaught's, posted a video on her Facebook page May 24 telling Ms. Vaught about the fundraising effort.
"I just want to let you know that over the last two days we went on Facebook and did a pledge and in less than 48 hours, here is a check for $38,967.04," she says in the video.
Ms. Vaught plans to deliver the check to the Tennessee Board of Nursing on May 25. She and other nurse advocates are now lobbying for a bill that would give nurses qualified immunity for criminal prosecution for medical mistakes.