US woman who survived 2 doses of lethal injection says she's been in pain since botched execution

Christa Pike, a woman from the United States, has shared her harrowing experience of surviving a botched lethal injection. In an interview with CNN, she described the persistent pain she has been enduring since that fateful night. Pike stated that her body aches, her arms, hands, and throat are in excruciating pain, and she struggles to speak.

Beyond the physical torment, she also suffers mentally and emotionally. Pike explained that the pain is not just physical but also psychological, saying, "There is pain in my mind and in my soul." She had been prepared to die but was instead rushed to the hospital after the attempted execution, confused and in pain. Pike spent 28 years in solitary confinement, and she feels that her current experience is a repetition of that period.

The crime she committed involved luring and torturing her victim, Colleen Slemmer, before killing her with a block of asphalt. Pike's execution would have made her the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. However, she survived after receiving two doses of lethal injection. Pike's execution was scheduled for September 30, but she lived through it.

She was taken away by ambulance after being heard snoring after the attempted execution and was heard speaking in full sentences just before the injection. According to Tennessee's protocol, if the prisoner does not die after the first set of drugs, a second set would be administered, though there are no guidelines for if the second injection fails.

Pike remains in isolation in the prison's medical ward, away from human connections that she finds crucial.