NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Medical specialists are condemning the actions of Tennessee execution workers during the failed lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Pike, arguing that the procedures described in new court records would constitute malpractice in any healthcare setting, The Guardian reported.
Pike, 50, survived two massive doses of the sedative pentobarbital on Sept. 30 at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. According to court declarations filed Thursday by her attorney, Randy Spivey, who was present in the death chamber, an intravenous team spent almost an hour attempting to establish lines in Pike’s arms, using approximately 10 needles and repeatedly suspecting that her veins had ruptured or “blown.”
Disturbing Chamber Chronology
Spivey’s detailed timeline, submitted as part of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s lethal injection procedures, documented extensive difficulties before the lethal chemicals were pushed. TDOC personnel started trying to place IV lines at 6:34 p.m. While an IV in Pike’s right arm was placed quickly, personnel spent nearly an hour struggling with her left arm, NBC News reported.
Around 7:05 p.m., an IV team member requested a 24-gauge needle and moved it extensively while Pike grimaced, according to Spivey’s account. Two minutes later, another team member observed, “I think it is blown.” Workers also attempted to guide placement using an ultrasound machine and eventually forced saline through a line with difficulty around 7:23 p.m. before declaring the lines set, The Guardian reported.
About 10 minutes after blinds opened and drugs were introduced, Pike said her arm felt “about to bust” and complained that a spot was “really burning,” Spivey stated. She subsequently gasped, choked and snored before losing consciousness, but remained alive after two doses. An emergency call for an ambulance was placed from the facility at around 8:40 p.m., ABC News reported.
Clinicians Condemn Protocol Failures
“I’m shocked and disturbed by what happened inside the death chamber,” Jonathan Groner, an emeritus professor of clinical surgery at Ohio State University, told The Guardian. “The level of incompetence is astounding, and difficult to comprehend.” Groner emphasized that pentobarbital is known to cause severe chemical burns and said no medical practitioner would inject it if an IV line did not flush easily with saline.
Joel Zivot, an anesthesiology and surgery professor based in Atlanta who previously evaluated Pike’s condition, noted that a 24-gauge catheter is typically reserved for infants and young children. Zivot told The Guardian that pushing a 50cc syringe through such a tiny catheter would inevitably blow the vein. “It was clear this was not doable, and yet they kept on doing it anyway,” Zivot said, describing the attempt as a severe departure from medical safety standards.
Pike was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, committed when Pike was 18. Her attorneys had warned prison officials prior to the execution attempt that her veins were unusually small and compromised, CNN reported.
Legal and Political Aftermath
Pike spent days on a ventilator and was hospitalized for 10 days before returning to prison, where she can walk and speak but faces an unclear prognosis, according to her legal team. Her attorneys contend the medication infiltrated surrounding body tissues rather than her bloodstream.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered a temporary pause on all scheduled executions and appointed former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to lead an independent inquiry into the execution attempt. Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada also announced his resignation earlier this month, ABC News reported.
While the state Department of Correction maintained it followed approved execution protocols, Pike’s legal team has asked Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without parole, while death row advocates seek to bar pentobarbital entirely in federal court.
