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US death row inmate Christa Pike is “conscious and speaking” after surviving a failed execution attempt in Tennessee last week, her lawyers say.<\/b><\/p>\n
Pike, 50, continues to receive critical medical care while “handcuffed and shackled to the bed” in hospital, her lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday. An anaesthesiologist advising her team told the BBC that Pike was able to communicate in a “basic way” but did not seem to recall the execution attempt.<\/p>\n
Pike, who was sentenced to death after murdering Colleen Slemmer with her then-boyfriend in 1995, survived two lethal injections on 30 September in Tennessee. <\/p>\n
Experts and her legal team say her apparent recovery is unprecedented. <\/p>\n
Pike is believed to be the only person to survive a lethal injection. The execution attempt was described immediately afterwards as a “mess” by Slemmer’s mother, who had pushed for Pike to be put to death.<\/p>\n
After it became clear Pike would not die, she was taken to hospital, where she remained unconscious for days as medical staff cleared her body of the injected chemical. <\/p>\n
In their statement on Tuesday, her lawyers said her prognosis remained unclear, but that “at a minimum, we expect a long recovery”.<\/p>\n
In additional comments made to the BBC, the anaesthesiologist advising her team said Pike had been taken off a ventilator. <\/p>\n
“She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt,” Dr Joel Zivot said of the limited communication that had taken place.<\/p>\n
Zivot said Pike was able to recall her name and had made an incorrect guess at the date, believing that the month was still September.<\/p>\n
In an earlier interview, Zivot said the likelihood of recovering from lethal injection was low. “Most people who get lethal injection die from it,” he explained.<\/p>\n
There remained many unknowns, he said, including how much of the drug used by the prison authorities, pentobarbital, got into her system. <\/p>\n
“I would not, in any way, say at this point that all the big risks are behind her,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n