Christa Pike has woken up and begun speaking from her hospital bed almost a week after her failed execution in Tennessee, her lawyers said, per the BBC. Experts and her lawyers have said that the new development is "medically unprecedented".
Pike's legal team filed a lawsuit back in January, challenging the state's lethal injection protocol. They said in the lawsuit that Pike suffered from a blood-clotting condition known as thrombocytosis and said she had "small veins that make insertion of a needle more difficult".
Pike's attorney Stephen Ferrell said after the failed execution that setting an IV line was more difficult than a simple blood draw, adding, "We knew this was coming."
Pike's other attorney, Randy Spivey, claimed to have noticed that during the execution that "her right arm was turning purple" and that there was "burning around the sites of the injection" afterwards.
Also Read | Carissa Hansen: Who is Christa Pike's biological mother and where is she now?
Ferrell said on Sunday during a conversation with CNN that doctors were still trying to clear two doses of pentobarbital from Pike’s body. However, on Tuesday, her lawyers said that "against all odds", she was "conscious" and "speaking".
What is thrombocytosis?
{{/usCountry}}Ferrell said on Sunday during a conversation with CNN that doctors were still trying to clear two doses of pentobarbital from Pike’s body. However, on Tuesday, her lawyers said that "against all odds", she was "conscious" and "speaking".
What is thrombocytosis?
{{/usCountry}}According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Thrombocytosis is a high platelet count. Platelets are blood cells that stop bleeding by sticking together to form a clot. But too many platelets can sometimes make your blood too sticky. In serious cases, they can cause harmful blood clots. Without treatment, these clots can lead to a heart attack or stroke.”
Pike was put on a ventilator after the failed execution attempt, with hospital staff working to save her life and clear the pentobarbital she was administered from her system. She received two doses of the drug in a failed attempt by the state of Tennessee to execute her on Wednesday, September 31.
Pike’s attorneys stated in a court filing that they believed problems with intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,” they wrote.
They added that instead of “remedying this failure,” the execution team went on to prepare and administer a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 in connection with the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 20 at the time.
Pike and her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, murdered Slemmer at a job training camp in Knoxville, Tennessee. Shocking details about the case shocked the United States, including the fact that a pentagram had been carved into Slemmer’s chest.