She couldn’t revive the teen: A tired nurse

Exhausted at the end of her third overnight shift in as many days, the nurse left the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis and drove home.

She later told police she had worked 12 1/2-hour shifts, from 7:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., three days in a row. In her daylight hours, she had slept five or six hours one day and little more than three the next.

 And she would tell police she tried her best but that there was nothing she could do to revive the teen who was struck by her car and then thrown to her death on July 27, 2006. Less than a mile from her Farmington home, the nurse, age 40, allegedly fell asleep at the wheel of her car near a busy Farmington, Minnesota intersection. The car jumped the curb and crashed into 18-year-old Jacquelynn Devney as the summer worker weeded a sidewalk trail. A Dakota County coroner later determined that Jacquelynn, who was weeks away from starting college, died instantly.

In May, the nurse pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of careless driving. A judge sentenced her to 100 hours of community service.

Advice: If your nurse is tired, ask the hospital’s Ombudsman or Patient Advocate for a different one.

Read another of our stories about a tired nurse, or read the source blog post.