Delay in emergency response after botched execution of Tennessee inmate
911 recordings show that prison officials and first responders hesitated for more than half an hour before confirming a medical emergency during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike.
Tennessee prison officials and emergency responders spent over thirty minutes determining the legitimacy of a 911 call placed during the botched execution of inmate Christa Pike on September 30. The first call was logged at 8:40 p.m., but officials initially reported the request as a false alarm.
At 9:03 p.m., an unidentified supervisor told dispatchers that no medical assistance was needed at Riverbend Prison. Four minutes later, a responder reported that individuals claiming to be state officials were outside the prison gate demanding entry.
It was not until 9:11 p.m. that prison officials confirmed the emergency was real and authorized medical assistance. Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital, was placed on a ventilator, and later recovered enough to walk with assistance. She has since been released from the hospital and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she had been incarcerated for three decades.