Doctor Explains Medical Condition That May Have Helped Christa Pike Survive Failed Execution
A doctor who previously examined Christa Gail Pike says one of her medical conditions may help explain why she survived Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection on September 30.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. After spending roughly three decades on death row, she was scheduled to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
But the procedure did not go as planned.
Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, the drug Tennessee uses for lethal injection, yet she remained alive and was ultimately transported to an outside hospital. Reuters reported that she survived the execution attempt after receiving two syringes of the drug.
Her attorneys later alleged that problems with the IV lines caused pentobarbital to enter surrounding tissue rather than properly circulating through her bloodstream.
Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator while doctors continue treating her. Her attorney, Stephen Ferrell, told CNN on October 4 that her condition was still critical and that her long-term prognosis remained unclear.