The inmate remains hospitalised following her botched execution last Wednesday and now armed guards and police are having to work around the clock to secure the high-risk inmate who has been placed in a public facility
Christa Pike has health officials and police watching her around the clock as she still hasn’t woken up. The hallway leading to her hospital room is under armed guard patrol as she continues to fight for her life, it has been reported.
The inmate remains hospitalised following her botched execution last Wednesday and now armed guards and police are having to work around the clock to secure the high-risk inmate who has been placed in a public hospital.
Her attorney provided a disturbing health update following her failed execution saying there has been little signs of improvement since the failed attempt to take her life.
They say Pike has remained unconscious and is still completely dependent on a ventilator at a medical facility nearby, as doctors continue working to try and rid her body of the poison she was injected with.
She has been there for four days since the botched procedure, with her outlook still “potentially unclear for several additional days”, according to her legal team who gave the update on Sunday
Minimal details have emerged about the Tennessee convicted murderer’s health status but her team have confirmed that doctors are still working to eliminate the substantial quantity of the barbiturate pentobarbital from her body.
It is said during her execution at one point she had six different needles in her arm, as they attempted to take her life.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, representing Pike, informed CNN’s State of the Union that he has been given “no indication she’s regained consciousness following the execution attempt.”
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and murdered classmate Colleen Slemmer in a fit of jealousy in 1995. She was among the youngest females ever sentenced to death row and was only set for execution last week.
Prison guards administered two separate doses of the lethal injection substance to Pike on Wednesday evening — yet the pentobarbital failed to prove fatal as it did not enter her bloodstream properly.
Instead her legal representatives reported that her arms sustained burns and blistering from the harsh chemicals.
Now, a person close to Pike has been given the right to make her medical decisions for her. That identity has not been made public.
Pike’s lawyers said they will not disclose the identity of the person overseeing Pike’s healthcare decisions for safety reasons for that person.
A representative from her legal team issued a statement early Sunday, saying, “We appreciate all respect for Christa’s rightful privacy.”
Because she is technically still a death row inmate under the custody of the state, Tennessee Department of Correction policies treat her hospital room as a temporary extension of her maximum-security cell.
She remains hospitalized under constant, multi-officer armed guard while doctors monitor her condition, and the state does not publicly disclose the specific name of her medical facility to prevent both security breaches and public disruptions.