50-year-old Christa Pike was sentenced to death for a torture-like murder in 1996 and was to be executed last week using two injections of pentobarbital. But something went wrong, and Pike was instead rushed to hospital for treatment as all prisoners are entitled to hospital care.
The drug has been used in executions both before and after the failed attempt on Pike. Last Wednesday, a man in Texas was executed with pentobarbital.
Usually the drug knocks out the central nervous system, breathing and the heart, but in Christa Pike's case it didn't. Witnesses at the scene could hear her snoring long after she should have died.
- They seem to have failed to insert the needle correctly into a vein. Then the agent goes out into the soft parts of the arm and under the skin instead of entering the bloodstream and circulating around. Then you don't get the direct effects on the heart and breathing that cause you to collapse and die, says Kai Knudsen, who is chief physician at Sahlgrenska's intensive care unit.
Christa Pike woke up in hospital on Tuesday. She cannot move her arms, which are severely swollen and have burn marks and blisters. She has also developed pneumonia, a blood clot in one arm, cognitive difficulties and problems swallowing. But she can talk and is "up and walking", her lawyer told the BBC.
The 50-year-old is believed to be the first to survive this type of execution. Kai Knudsen believes that Christa Pike was subjected to great suffering in connection with the execution attempt that went awry.
- It is an acidic solution and when it goes into the soft parts outside the blood vessel, it really hurts. It can also burn the tissue there, so the damage to her arm is probably pretty ugly, he says.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an independent investigation into what went wrong.
Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology, told the New York Times that Pike's veins may have been too small or sensitive and thus ruptured.
Another possibility is that the medicine used was of poor quality. Many pharmaceutical companies do not want to sell preparations to be used in executions, which has sometimes made it difficult for states with the death penalty to purchase suitable drugs.
- Is it possible that the pentobarbital itself had not been prepared correctly? Could it have been broken down? Could it have expired? All those things are possible, says Joel Zivot.
Before the execution, the lawyers had informed the court about a blood disease that Christa Pike will suffer from. The condition, a type of blood clotting disorder, means the body produces an excess of platelets. It risked causing blood clots at the injection sites or bleeding that could affect her lungs, the lawyers argued.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections emphasized in a statement that it followed "every step of the state's legal, established protocol for executions."
Kai Knudsen believes at the same time that everything indicates that Pike's survival depends on the human factor.
- As a rule, nurse anesthetists are better than doctors at putting the needles into the blood vessels, because they do it several times every day. It can be very difficult. The right skills were simply missing here, he says.
Whether the state will try to execute Christa Pike again remains to be seen. A similar situation has never been tried legally before.
Read more:
Death row inmate Christa Pike awake after botched execution
