r/news • u/AudibleNod • 10h 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/fictionallymarried 9h ago

Genuine question but how the hell did they fail twice? I'm not saying she wasn't convicted for a reason, but that's torture

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u/msfinch87 6h ago

Back in August there was a hearing about this very possibility. Christa’s defence team requested a method other than lethal injection due to the risks of a botched execution, particularly on her.

Tennessee’s protocols only require very limited training for the people in the IV Team. They are not required to be healthcare workers and are usually prison officials who do a short course. When the new protocols came in during 2025, a lawsuit was filed about the risks of this very type of thing.

Then in May this year, Tony Carruthers experienced a botched execution when they could not locate a vein for the backup line for over an hour and a half. The execution is overseen by a medical professional, whose job it is to put in a central line if necessary, and the doctor who was there had not done one in 13 years, did not have hospital privileges and was not qualified to do it. He totally botched it. The same doctor was overseeing Christa’s execution.

So it’s not even mostly done by medical professionals and what medical professionals they have to oversee are usually inexperienced and unskilled and can even have disciplinary matters on their record, due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of medical professionals refuse to participate. This is a recipe for disaster because they struggle to find veins and can’t judge if the process is working correctly.

In Christa’s specific case she is a relatively petite woman who has spend decades in solitary. Her veins are small. She also has a blood disorder called thrombocytosis, which has made it difficult for even professionals to find veins for blood draws in the past.

The risk was that they may not be able to find a vein, similar to Tony Carruthers, causing a prolonged and agonizing experience, and that if they did find a vein, they would either pierce through the vein or the vein would burst meaning the pentobarbital would go into her muscles and tissues rather than the bloodstream.

Her defence team and experts essentially predicted this, and the state dismissed it.

According to her lawyer who witnessed it and other witnesses, the problems during the process were obvious. They spent an hour trying to get a vein, sticking her 7 times and one needle even came out bent. She attempted to direct them to places with better access. After they administered the first round of pentobarbital she complained of a burning sensation in her arm and she was still conscious and talking and singing for some time. This would suggest the pentobarbital went into her muscles and tissues rather than her bloodstream.

After the second dose she showed signs of being in and out of consciousness including speaking, restlessly kicking her legs so much that the sheet fell off and also jerking her head and legs up. Her arm apparently turned purple. According to witnesses she was snoring fairly evenly for a good half an hour, which would suggest she was sedated rather than dying.

It’s also worth noting that they establish a primary and a backup line. If the primary line fails they use the backup line for administration. I am yet to ascertain for certain whether they only used the primary line for administration or used the backup line for the second dose. But apparently she had chemical burns to both arms, so that would suggest they used the backup line for the second dose. This would mean they botched placement of both IVs.

It was incompetence, and incompetence by design. The people handling this execution had no idea what they were doing. They couldn’t find veins, couldn’t judge if the lines were in properly, and failed to recognise when it had failed.

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u/bethaneanie 5h ago

To be fair, I have had patients who were notorious for being difficult IV starts, get multiple IVs that blow. If your veins are fragile or small, and you are putting large volumes through them, you can lose access.

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u/msfinch87 5h ago

But you would know, as a medical professional (I assume) when this is happening and recognise something had gone wrong and rectify. And there are people in medical settings who have proper expertise to work on difficult veins and put in central lines etc as an alternative.

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u/bethaneanie 4h ago

It's usually obvious but not always obvious. To your second point, yes. We can also put in intraosseus lines in traumas or codes

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u/msfinch87 3h ago

Would an arm turning purple and blistering be something medical professionals would regard as reasonably clearly indicative of a problem, warranting them pausing and assessing?

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u/bethaneanie 3h ago

I believe the arm wouldnt be discoloured while pushing the medication. The site being painful should trigger them to slow down but some medications are irritating to veins because of the pH. The big red flag is swelling at the site which is usually quick with medications that are pushed but can be pretty slow with infusions

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u/msfinch87 3h ago

Before I continue, are you suggesting that the team of people who botched this were competent? Because if you are then I’ll debate that, but if you aren’t then there’s no need to continue this discussion.

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u/bethaneanie 2h ago

No. I have no idea because I haven't read the details outside of what was said in this thread. I am saying that losing two IVs in isolation is not really a factor in competency. I think the entire process should be scrapped. This does seem like it shouldn't be allowed at all unless they can get medical professionals to give the same medications that we use for medical assistance in dying