{"id":13762,"date":"2026-10-03T14:05:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/?p=13762"},"modified":"2026-10-03T14:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:05:41","slug":"christa-pike-very-likely-brain-damaged-after-surviving-2-lethal-injections-as-doctor-issues-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/?p=13762","title":{"rendered":"Christa Pike \u2018very likely brain damaged\u2019 after surviving 2 lethal injections as doctor issues update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Christa<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Christa Pike remains hospitalized after surviving two attempts to execute her by lethal injection, and a doctor who has been involved with her legal team has now explained what the ordeal could mean for her long-term health.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, told the BBC<\/a> that Pike <\/a>could potentially have suffered a brain injury because of the delay before efforts were made to resuscitate her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Zivot has also worked closely with Pike\u2019s attorneys ahead of her scheduled execution.<\/p>\n

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Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, and was supposed to be executed in Tennessee on September 30, which would have made her the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.<\/p>\n

Instead, the process turned into a medical emergency.<\/p>\n

Christa Pike execution<\/h2>\n

Pike was strapped to a gurney and given two doses of pentobarbital. However, neither attempt resulted in her death.<\/p>\n

Her attorney later said Pike remained conscious following the second syringe, although she was \u201caudibly snoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A witness also described what happened inside the execution chamber. At around 7:34PM, Pike reportedly said: \u201cMy arm feels like it is about to burst open.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She then asked: \u201cDoes this happen like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Witnesses said Pike was kicking her feet as she was restrained and the lethal injection drugs were administered.<\/p>\n

Following the failed execution, Pike was taken to an outside medical facility.<\/p>\n

Aspokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Corrections said Pike had been \u201ctransported to an off-site medical facility\u201d after the attempt.<\/p>\n

Survived two lethal injections<\/h2>\n

The department defended the execution procedure, saying the state had followed its established protocol.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said the state \u201cfollowed every step of the State\u2019s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General\u2019s Office\u201d and added that \u201cthe lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pike\u2019s legal team disputed that account.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,\u201d her attorneys said.<\/p>\n

Pike remains hospitalized as questions continue over what happened during the failed execution and whether the prolonged attempt could have caused lasting health consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christa Pike remains hospitalized after surviving two attempts to execute her by lethal injection, and a doctor who has been involved with her legal team has now explained what the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13763,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13762\/revisions\/13763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}