How Did Christa Pike Survive Two Lethal Injections of Pentobarbital?

A catheter carrying the drug may not have delivered the doses to Ms. Pike’s bloodstream, experts said. The drug itself may have been degraded.
The execution team went through at least seven needles trying to find a vein suitable for delivering doses of a lethal drug to Tennessee inmate Christa Pike, her lawyers said on Thursday.Ms. Pike, who survived the botched execution on Wednesday night, was left with blistering and burning around the intravenous insertion sites that the execution team ultimately used to deliver the drug, the lawyers added.
Those details reinforced the sense among outside medical experts that Ms. Pike had survived the procedure because the drug, pentobarbital, probably poured into tissue surrounding the insertion sites instead of entering her bloodstream.That could have prevented the drug from reaching the levels needed in her circulatory system to stop her breathing.

The drug may nonetheless have lowered her oxygen levels or weakened her circulation enough to cause permanent brain damage.
Any leak of the drug into her tissue could also have caused chemical burns.Ms. Pike’s lawyers said she was in critical condition and receiving lifesaving medical care.
Stephen Ferrell, one of her lawyers, said that while details of the execution attempt were consistent with there having been problems with the intravenous delivery, a number of other factors could have been involved.Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.