Christa Pike is “up and walking” in her hospital room after surviving last week’s failed execution, and her attorneys say she is “very aware” of what happened.
The 50-year-old remains mentally “foggy” after receiving two lethal-injection doses from the Tennessee Department of Correction on Sept. 30. Still, her lawyer Stephen Ferrell told the BBC that Pike was able to move around her hospital room one week later.
“What’s been described to me is that physically there’s quite a bit going on, that her arms are very injured and she’s not able to use them very much,” Ferrell told the outlet.
“She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, not very far,” he added.
Although Pike’s physical condition appears to be improving, Ferrell described her mental state as a mix of “good and bad.” Doctors have not yet determined whether she sustained permanent brain damage.
“Good that she is fairly with it, but she’s also somewhat foggy. She can lose her train of thought really easily and forgets where she’s going,” Ferrell said.
Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries. Instead, she became the first known prisoner in the United States to survive a lethal injection.
The convicted murderer was initially reported to be unconscious and in critical condition after being taken from the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville to a hospital last Wednesday.
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But on Tuesday, Pike regained consciousness in a development that stunned the country.
“She is angry and confused about everything right now. She is very aware that the state tried to execute her,” attorney Randall Spivey told reporters following a Wednesday court hearing. During the hearing, a judge ordered Tennessee officials to preserve syringes and other evidence from the execution attempt.
Pike’s legal team says she was given two doses of pentobarbital through at least seven needles. One of the needles reportedly slipped from her arm and bent at a 90-degree angle.
The death-row inmate remains in critical care.
“Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist who has advised Pike’s attorneys, previously told the BBC that she could communicate in a “basic way” after waking. At one point, she mistakenly believed it was still September.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and killing of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 when she and her boyfriend attacked Slemmer during what prosecutors described as a jealous rage.
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