US death row inmate Christa Pike is «conscious and speaking» after surviving a failed execution attempt in Tennessee last week, her lawyers say.
Pike, 50, continues to receive critical medical care while «handcuffed and shackled to the bed» in hospital, her lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday. An anaesthesiologist advising her team told the BBC that Pike was able to communicate in a «basic way» but did not seem to recall the execution attempt.
Pike, who was sentenced to death after murdering Colleen Slemmer with her then-boyfriend in 1995, survived two failed lethal injections on 30 September in Tennessee.
Experts and her legal team say her apparent recovery is unprecedented.
Pike is believed to be the only person to survive a lethal injection. The execution attempt was described immediately afterwards as a «mess» by Slemmer’s mother, who had pushed for Pike to be put to death.
After it became clear Pike would not die, she was taken to hospital, where she remained unconscious for days as medical staff cleared her body of the injected chemical.
In their statement on Tuesday, her lawyers said her prognosis remained unclear, but that «at a minimum, we expect a long recovery».
In additional comments made to the BBC, the anaesthesiologist advising her team said Pike had been taken off a ventilator.
«She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt,» Dr Joel Zivot said of the limited communication that had taken place.
Zivot said Pike was able to recall her name and had made an incorrect guess at the date, believing that the month was still September.
In an earlier interview, Zivot said the likelihood of recovering from lethal injection was low. «Most people who get lethal injection die from it,» he explained.
There remained many unknowns, he said, including how much of the drug used by the prison authorities, pentobarbital, got into her system.
«I would not, in any way, say at this point that all the big risks are behind her,» he said.
