Christy Pike health status: Woman who survived an execution attempt has pneumonia and no function in her arms | Today’s news
Christa Pike has a “long road to recovery” after a botched execution attempt in Tennessee that left her unconscious and on life support for six days, her attorney, Randy Spivey, said at a news conference Wednesday.
In a miraculous development, Pike, 50, woke up and started talking Tuesday, but she’s far from out of the woods, NBC News reported.
Spivey described several health problems, including a blood clot in one arm, pneumonia, the inability to swallow and no function in his arms.
“Neither we nor Christa have even begun to process what this means for her mental health,” Spivey said.
According to the Associated Press, Pike suffered burns and blisters on her arms and her prognosis remains uncertain after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital, her legal team said Wednesday.
Pike was sentenced to death for beating and stabbing fellow student Colleen Slemmer in 1995. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, he is the only person to survive after being given lethal injection drugs during the execution.
Many details about the execution process remain secret, and Tennessee officials say they are investigating what happened.
Christa Pike survived 2 doses of the execution drug. how is that possible
Medical experts have put forward several possibilities that could explain how Pike was able to survive, including the potential quality of drugs and the placement of IV lines.
Executioners in Tennessee had trouble with IV lines for another execution earlier this year, leading to its cancellation.
Only a small amount of the drug could have entered her bloodstream
The five-gram dose of pentobarbital used in executions is far more than the amount that should put someone into a medically induced coma, Dr. Jonathan I. Groner, a pediatric surgeon at the Ohio State University College of Medicine who has studied lethal injections, told the AP.
“The fact that she woke up says, on one hand, that she got really little into her system. So that’s a little shocking,” Groner said. He added: “They say how badly they messed up the execution.”
At high doses, a strong barbiturate should cause loss of consciousness and respiratory arrest.
Groner said the IV could have been placed incorrectly or Pike’s veins could have been brittle and ruptured, causing the drug to seep into the surrounding tissue instead of passing through the bloodstream.
Pike’s lawyers said she was stabbed at least seven times by needles in the state’s death chamber and that she has a blood disorder that makes it difficult to get needles into her veins.
Obtaining drugs for executions is shrouded in secrecy.
Another possible problem could be the quality of the drug, said Michaela Almgren, a South Carolina pharmacist and educator who has consulted on several lethal injection cases.
Tennessee does not disclose its drug supplier and did not say where Pike’s supplies came from. Almgren said it is difficult to track whether the drug was prepared, tested, handled and administered correctly.
It also means the public may never know exactly what happened in Pike’s case.
Outgoing Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended the executions and ordered a “comprehensive third-party review to determine exactly what happened.” It is unclear whether the state will try to execute Pike again.
(With input from the Associated Press)
