The 911 calls made by Christa Pike’s lawyers as she survived her lethal injections have been made public, revealing chaos and confusion that delayed help by half an hour.
Emergency services arrived at Riverbend Prison in Tennessee confused, as officials informed them it was a ‘false call’. The first call came in at 8.40pm, around an hour after Pike received the lethal injection, but the 911 operator was unable to verify the request.
Prison workers can be heard insisting they ‘would have been the ones to call in’ and they ‘did not make that call’.
Confusion at the prison gate
A first responder at the scene trying to enter the prison can then be heard saying: ‘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.’
One of Pike’s lawyers, Kelly Gleason, made another call at 9.08pm, insisting her client needed help. She said: ‘My client, Christa Gail Pike, is undergoing a state execution. She has completed the stages of the protocol and last we knew from the attorney who is present, she is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care.’
Half-hour delay and hospital transport
It took half an hour from the first call for the prison to confirm the request for help was legitimate at 9.11pm, and emergency services were eventually allowed to enter.
As they transported Pike to hospital at 9.34pm, a paramedic can be heard telling the 911 operator to make sure the prison knew they were taking her. They said: ‘Just because there’s been so much other confusion, I want to make sure they are aware of this.’
The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released the redacted calls, except the first call which is exempt from public disclosure, two weeks after Pike survived her lethal injections.
She has since been released from hospital after making a ‘medically unprecedented’ recovery. It is not known whether Tennessee officials will try and execute her again.
