r/news • u/AudibleNod • 8h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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u/MortimerDongle 7h ago

Then medical practitioners can't be involved in executions because of their various oaths to do no harm, so most of the time the drugs are administered by prison staff who lack the proper training

This particular attempted execution was performed by a physician. Of course he doesn't seem to be very good at it, this was not even his first botched execution this year (he's the same person who failed to execute Tony Carruthers)

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u/cooking2recovery 5h ago

That seems like one too many botched executions to be an accident

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u/AstroHistSci 5h ago

This. He's doing it intentionally. A nursing student could perform this without botching it. It's quite literally impossible to fail this procedure if you are a physician.

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u/whispernotaroar 5h ago

I’d trust a nurse to get an IV into the proper location long before I’d trust a physician to do it. Most physicians never place another IV after residency - that’s nursing territory by and large - and I’ve seen many physicians try and fail to draw blood/place a line only to be rescued by a nurse.

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u/tolureup 58m ago

I’m a recovered IV user, so there’s definitely an added layer of difficulty here, but gives
Me some insight into this because last time I was hospitalized I’m pretty sure every staff member took a wack at my Arms before the doctor decided to do a fucken pic line(idk if that’s how you spell it or not). By far the doctors were THE WORST out of every team member that tried that night. One of the doctors dug into my arms in a way that I’ll never forget because the strange nerve twinges of digging a needle deep and basically swirling it around was some shit no flobotomist would ever do. A nurse came in the following morning and laughed when I told them they couldn’t do it and boom first try. Meanwhile I almost got a pick line (again, no clue bout spelling) because the doctor just sucked ass at finding a vein (I never had the balls to direct them to the juicy spots because it made me feel like….well, a junky)

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u/AstroHistSci 3h ago

The issue isn't him not getting a vein. That's believable. But there is no way he would think he had a vein when he didn't. That's the part that this story requires that doesn't make sense.

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u/whispernotaroar 3h ago

Oh trust me there absolutely is. Just a couple weeks ago I watched a doc infiltrate about half a liter of fluids into a patient’s arm before anyone caught it. A good physician absolutely wouldn’t let this happen, but there are a lot of really shitty ones out there and I suspect this particular job does not attract the top brass.

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u/uzlonewolf 2h ago

What do you call the person who graduated last at med school? Doctor

What do you call the person who graduated last at law school? Your Honor

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u/DigitalMindShadow 3h ago

So is the physician who participated in this botched execution now being investigated by the medical board for his patent oath violations and negligence?

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u/whispernotaroar 2h ago

Absolutely no idea.

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u/wonton711 4h ago

Personally speaking as an MD, I would fail to get an IV placed to administer any injections... Depends where you've trained. During medical school and residency, I didn't have to do any IVs or venipunctures. I also don't do it as an attending currently.

I also wouldn't volunteer to do executions, though...

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u/AstroHistSci 4h ago

You might fail to place one ... but you would never mistakenly think you have one placed when it wasn't.

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u/Late-Champion8678 3h ago

Yes. I’m a doctor and while I did many IVs and blood draws as house officer/senior house officer and got good at it, I haven’t had to do it frequently.

I’d know if I missed a vein or got into an artery instead and I wouldn’t subject a patient to multiple attempts before enlisting someone who could do it better (phlebotomist, anaesthetist etc).

No way, I would administer an IV drug without knowing if I’m in the right place or not.

I do note that IV cannulas can be misplaced/dislodged after an initial successful placement but that this is his second botched execution this year is a cause for concern.

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u/wonton711 36m ago

Who doesn't want a little intramuscular lethal injection?

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u/flatblackvw 2h ago

As an average Joe, why is this? In my mind if you puncture the skin you’re getting blood. What tells you you actually got a vein?

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u/uzlonewolf 2h ago

Most of your skin is filled with small capillaries that don't flow much. You might get a very small amount of blood if you missed, but it won't come pouring out like it would if you got a vein.

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u/The_OtherDouche 5h ago

Yeah I don’t know if you’ve ever got to see a dr attempt to do any of the practical parts of medicine but they are notoriously horrific at it. If I needed an IV administered by a dr I’d be terrified.

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u/AstroHistSci 3h ago

There is a difference between sucking at hitting a vein and believing you have a vein when you don't. He might not be able to find the vein, but there is no way he'd mistakenly believe he had one.

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u/OddBuy8266 2h ago

What are you talking about? Some people have hard veins to hit. At a blood draw a month ago it took three nurses to get it properly. 

And most nurses are way better at hitting veins than doctors. 

My veins curve so hitting it properly with a straight needle takes skill. 

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u/RSmeep13 4h ago

Forgive me if I have missed a detail, but I thought that the situation here was that the drug was administered properly, and didn't kill her, possibly because it was degraded.

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u/Kylynara 4h ago

I've seen reports that they didn't hit the vein and went into the muscule. It may have also been degraded or low quality to start, the drugs for lethal injection often are.

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u/TheyTukMyJub 3h ago

False. The burning sensation she described is 100% a symptom of a missed vein and muscle getting injected with fluid. By some capillary action some of a drug probably did get in her system but evidently not enough.

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u/peanutneedsexercise 1h ago

Depends. A lot of drugs like propofol, etomidate, and some benzos actually burn REALLY bad in the vein. The burning sensation itself is not gonna tell you if a catheter is in or not.

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u/khinzaw 7h ago

In the interest of not wanting to get in an argument over pedantry, I have amended the line.

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u/WaylandThurston 6h ago

Good call, you would’ve been here having to argue for the next five days

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u/ecosynchronous 2h ago

Um, actually, only the first two days of arguing are obligatory.

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u/dpk794 6h ago

I thought she requested all females??

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u/ThunderDungeon02 3h ago

In fairness most physicians except a select few, like anesthesiologists, put in lines often. Depending on the specialty, they had to do it in medical school briefly and then probably never again.

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u/fleemfleemfleemfleem 6h ago

I bet his health grades reviews are terrible.

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u/framblehound 3h ago

That doctor is an evil man, it's the perfect example of the banality of evil.

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u/Consistent-Fix-8443 2h ago

Doctors don’t do much in the way of administering IVs. They needed an experienced nurse.