Emergency help was delayed after Christa Pikes botched execution over confusion, 911 calls reveal

Emergency responders were left waiting to assist Christa Pike for nearly half an hour amid confusion over whether the convicted killer needed medical attention following her botched lethal injection, according to 911 calls.The 911 audio revealed confusion among dispatchers, first responders, and prison officials over whether the request for emergency medical assistance in the execution chamber was legitimate after Pike — sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of a classmate — survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital on Sept.30.A first call went to dispatchers at 8:40 p.m., but prison officials didn’t confirm the request was real until 9:11 p.m., when first responders were allowed to rush through the gates of Riverbend Prison, according to audio obtained by the Associated Press.“Per supervisors here at the DEC [Department of Emergency Communications], we have been informed it is a false call,” one unidentified person said at 9:03 p.m.

“There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”But just four minutes later, a responder reported that someone at the prison gate was insisting the emergency was real.“Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in.They say they are some sort of state official.

I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people,” the responder said on the audio.Prison officials didn’t confirm the call for help was legitimate until 9:11 p.m., the call logs showed.Pike, 50, was strapped to a gurney for about an hour as medical staff jabbed her with at least seven needles, one of which bent when it came out of her arm, her attorney Randy Spivey said.She was rushed to the hospital after the botched execution and was left unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator, with her lawyers fearing she was brain dead.

However, the death row inmate miraculously regained consciousness last week and started communicating.The convicted murdere...