Christa Pike, a Tennessee inmate who survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said Tuesday. "Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery," attorneys for Pike said in a statement.
Her attorneys said they are grateful for the first responders and the medical team at the hospital "who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her." The statement was the first indication that Pike has improved since an ambulance carried her away from a Nashville prison last Wednesday, the AP reports.
- Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital as Tennessee officials attempted to put her to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Her attorneys said Friday that doctors were trying to remove the execution drug from her body and that both of her arms were burned and blistered, the Tennessean reports. Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center says Pike, 50, is the first person to survive the administration of lethal injection drugs.
- As recently as Sunday, her attorneys said Pike had remained unconscious and on a ventilator since the failed execution attempt. Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike's legal team, said the development "bodes well for a good recovery," the AP reports.
- But, he added, it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored to a level that might enable the state to try again to execute her. "She's still in the ICU," he said. "She has recovered to a certain degree that she's able to be off a ventilator and able to speak, but in no way would I announce her free of further serious risk. There's still a lot of bad things that can happen here, even when everyone is doing their job well."
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