TENNESSEE-(MaraviPost)-In a moment doctors are calling medically unprecedented, Christa Pike is awake.
Six days after the State of Tennessee tried and failed to execute her with two full doses of lethal injection drugs, Pike has regained consciousness and is speaking.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” her attorneys said in a statement Monday afternoon, as quoted by CNN.
“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,” the statement, carried by The Tennessean, continued.
This is history. According to USA Today, citing the Death Penalty Information Center, no one in modern American history has ever survived a complete execution attempt until Pike.
On September 30, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Pike, now 50, was taken into the death chamber to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
What happened next shocked even veteran witnesses.
According to PEOPLE Magazine, who spoke to the victim’s mother May Martinez who was watching from the viewing room, Pike was moving her toes, lifting her head, and could be heard making sounds after the first dose of pentobarbital.
After 15 minutes, the curtain was closed. A second dose was given. She still did not die. Witnesses said they could still hear her snoring and gurgling behind the curtain.
Her attorneys told CNN that the execution team struggled for an hour to find a vein, using at least seven needles on both arms, despite being warned that Pike suffers from a blood disorder that makes IV access difficult.
At one point, Pike tried to help them, softly saying “please try here, please try higher on my shoulder.”
She was taken out on a stretcher, unconscious and on a ventilator, to a Nashville-area hospital.
Her arms were left swollen, burned and blistered, her lawyers said.
For days her family, attorneys, and even the victim’s family waited to know if she would ever open her eyes again.
On Monday, she did.
In a deeply touching detail reported by The Tennessean and USA Today, her attorneys thanked the first responders and the hospital medical team who “treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her.”
They also thanked the thousands of people from around the world who sent prayers and support for Christa.
Behind the death row number is a woman who has known pain since childhood. Her legal team has said she endured multiple childhood rapes, severe physical abuse, and undiagnosed mental illness as a teenager, and has lived in solitary confinement for nearly 30 years. In recent years, she has expressed deep remorse.
“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time,” her attorneys said, as quoted by USA Today.
She is awake, she is conscious, and she is speaking. But she is still shackled hand and foot to her hospital bed, still requiring critical care.
Now, the question facing Governor Bill Lee and the State of Tennessee is no longer medical, but moral.
As reported by CNN, her attorneys are now calling for her death sentence to be commuted to life in prison without parole.
Governor Lee has already halted all other executions for the year.
A court hearing to preserve evidence from the failed execution is scheduled for Tuesday morning.
For six days, the question was: Will Christa Pike wake up?
She has.
The new question is: What does Tennessee do with a woman who has already survived death twice?
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