Christa Pike survived 2 doses of an execution drug. How is that possible?

Christa Pike regaining consciousness and speaking a week after receiving two doses of execution drugs in Tennessee has left a stunning question: How did she survive? Attorneys for Pike, 50, called her recovery “medically unprecedented” after she was placed on a ventilator following the bungled Sept. 30 attempt to make her the first woman put to death in Tennessee in 200 years.

On Tuesday, they said her prognosis is uncertain and they expect a long recovery. Many details of the execution process remain secretive and Tennessee officials say they are investigating what went wrong. Still, medical experts raised a few possibilities that could explain how Pike was able to survive the injections, including the potential drug quality and the placement of IV lines.

Tennessee’s executioners had difficulties earlier this year with IV lines for another execution, leading to it being called off. Only a small amount of the drug may have entered her bloodstream The 5-gram dose of pentobarbital used in executions is many more times the amount than what should put someone in a medical coma, said Dr. Groner, a retired pediatric general surgeon at Ohio State University College of Medicine who has studied lethal injections.

“The fact that she woke, on one hand, says she got really little of it into her system. So that’s kind of shocking,” Groner said. “It says how badly they botched the execution.” At high doses the potent barbiturate should make a person lose consciousness, stop breathing and stop their heart.

Groner said the IV might have been placed improperly, or Pike’s veins could have been fragile and burst, causing the drug to seep into the surrounding tissue instead of flowing through the bloodstream. Pike’s attorneys have said she was poked with needles at least seven times in the state’s death chamber and that she has a lifelong blood disorder that makes it tough to get needles into her veins. Sourcing of drugs for executions is shrouded in secrecy Another possible problem could be the drug quality, said Michaela Almgren, a South Carolina pharmacist and educator who has consulted on several lethal injection cases.

Many major pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply drugs for lethal injections, which has raised questions about how states get them. Court orders have revealed that some states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which create custom drugs …