Confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials caused delays in providing emergency assistance for Christa Pike following her failed lethal injection last month. Recordings released by the Nashville Department of Emergency Communications detail the events on September 30, where vital minutes were lost verifying the legitimacy of an emergency aid request in the execution chamber.
The first call was logged at 8:40 p.m. The caller requested an ambulance after noting that 10 grams of pentobarbital had been administered but the person, identified as Pike, was not deceased despite an hour passing since the procedure began. The dispatcher requested a verification code, which the caller did not have.
The recordings, obtained by the Associated Press, reveal various calls among emergency services such as the Nashville Fire Department, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Tennessee Highway Patrol Dispatch, and the Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control attempting to verify the emergency. At 9:03 p.m., under the instruction of the Department of Emergency Communications (DEC) supervisors, an unidentified individual initially stated it was a false call. Soon after, a responder outside the prison gate reported that a state official insisted on the emergency’s legitimacy.
In a call time-stamped at 9:07 p.m., prison Central Control initially denied making the emergency call but confirmed it was legitimate by 9:11 p.m., allowing responders entrance to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Emergency vehicles arrived following this confirmation, although the exact time they entered is not specified.
Christa Pike, now 50, was hospitalized after enduring two doses of pentobarbital, as the state attempted to execute her for the 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike required a ventilator and was not expected to survive. Her attorneys later reported that she regained consciousness and began talking and walking with support. Pike has since been discharged and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she was incarcerated for three decades.
There has been no official statement from the Tennessee Department of Correction about what went wrong during the execution. Experts in medical and lethal injection processes are considering the possibility of an IV line issue causing the drug to pool in Pike’s tissue instead of entering her bloodstream.
Pike, the only person on record in the U.S. to survive an execution attempt, faced execution after the Supreme Court declined a last-minute appeal to halt it. She was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820. Future proceedings concerning Pike’s case remain uncertain.