Confusion Delayed Emergency Help for Christa Pike After Failed Execution, Recordings Show

Emergency assistance for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion between first responders and Tennessee prison officials following her failed lethal injection last month, according to 911 dispatch recordings reviewed by The Associated Press. Precious minutes elapsed as officials and responders attempted to confirm the legitimacy of a request for emergency help within the execution chamber.

The initial call for assistance came in at 8:40 p.m. on September 30. However, it was not until 9:11 p.m. that prison officials affirmed the call for help was legitimate and allowed responders entry into the prison gates. During the intervening half-hour, a dispatcher stated, "Per supervisors here at the DEC (Department of Emergency Communications) we have been informed it is a false call. There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison."

A responder later relayed, "Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people."

Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in the state's attempt to execute her for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. At one point, Pike required a ventilator, and her attorneys did not anticipate her survival. However, she later regained consciousness, began to talk, and walked with assistance. She has since been discharged and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she had been housed for 30 years.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has not disclosed the cause of the attempted execution's failure. Medical and lethal injection experts have suggested a potential issue with the IV line, which may have caused the drug to pool in Pike's tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.