Tennessee Filing Reveals IV Team Used Ten Needles Before Injecting Pike

A Tennessee execution team inserted approximately ten needles into the arms of Christa Pike before successfully administering a lethal dose of pentobarbital, according to a court filing released Thursday. The document provides the most granular account yet of the Sept. 30 execution attempt, which left the 50 year old inmate hospitalized after she survived two injections of the drug.

Attorney Randy Spivey, who represents Pike, detailed the medical difficulties in the filing. He stated that the IV team struggled to establish the two required lines on both of Pike's arms. The right arm IV was placed in about six minutes, but the left arm required nearly an hour of attempts. Spivey noted that team members expressed concern that a vein might have ruptured before the drug was delivered.

The timeline in the filing begins at 6:34 p.m., when the team started placing the IVs. Pike, who had suggested the team check her upper arm for a usable vein, was described as wincing and grimacing during the procedure. At 6:57 p.m., one team member stated a vein might be blowing, while two others could not determine its status. A later needle appeared severely bent upon removal. By 7:07 p.m., a team member said, I think it's blown. The group concluded the IV was successfully placed at 7:13 p.m.

Phone calls to the execution chamber began roughly five minutes after the IV placement. Spivey wrote that team members administering the drug from an adjoining room repeatedly asked the IV team to check Pike's left arm. It is not specified exactly when the pentobarbital entered the lines, but at 7:34 p.m., Pike stated, I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns. She continued speaking with her spiritual adviser for about ten minutes before making an agitated snoring sound.

Over the next 30 minutes, Spivey reported that Pike strained, flinched, moved her head, and appeared to struggle to breathe. When Spivey requested a phone to call his colleagues, he was led on a seven minute walk through the facility instead of being permitted to use the witness room phone. At 8:22 p.m., he called his legal team and asked them to halt the execution, noting that a third dose is not authorized under state protocol. He also instructed the deputy attorney general that Pike required immediate medical care.

At 8:50 p.m., Spivey was informed that an ambulance was en route. Approximately 20 minutes later, he learned that medical staff were performing life saving measures on Pike. An ambulance arrived at the hospital at 9:14 p.m. Pike was placed on a ventilator for several days following the incident. Her attorneys did not initially expect her to survive, but she regained consciousness and has since returned to prison.

The filing was submitted in a separate case where death row inmates are challenging the state's lethal injection procedures. Kit Thomas, an attorney representing those inmates, said, Our predictions about the likelihood of botched executions have come true, and will continue to come true, without substantial change. Tennessee's current protocol mandates a second dose of pentobarbital if the first does not cause death, but it does not specify the procedure if an inmate survives the second injection.

Pike was convicted of the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 years old at the time of the crime and became one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death in the state.