I KNEW Christa Pike execution would be botched & horror injuries mean she may now be too sick to be killed, says top doc

A TOP doctor has insisted Christa Pike’s horrific execution attempt was doomed from the start and has revealed what horror injuries she may now have.

Pike, 50, was rushed to the hospital following two failed doses of lethal injection with witnesses grimly revealing she was left thrashing while strapped to the gurney.

In the wake of Wednesday’s catastrophe, expert Dr. Joel Zivot told Sun Studio’s Sam Homewood that the horrifying outcome was entirely avoidable but also completely foretold.

Dr. Zivot, a vocal opponent of capital punishment, revealed Pike may have cheated death not once, but twice as the severity of her injuries could leave the state of Tennessee legally unable to execute her again.

Dr Zivot said: “These things were predictable.

“I knew that they would happen. I called that they would happen and they happened.

“I can tell you that all the things that I warn about – that I’ve written in the past, have all come to fruition in the case of Christa Pike.”

Dr Zivot is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine and an outspoken critic of capital punishment.

He emphasised that performing a lethal injection requires inserting an intravenous catheter (IV), a delicate technical procedure strictly performed by trained healthcare professionals.

But as doctors and nurses are bound by medical ethics to abstain from capital punishment, state execution teams typically rely on untrained non-medical staff working under intense pressure.

Dr. Zivot said: “Placing an intravenous catheter is a specific technical skill that is practised by people in healthcare.

“It’s not something that translates into the execution chamber.”

Suspecting a botched insertion led to the fiasco, Dr. Zivot explained that the lethal dose of pentobarbital likely infiltrated her surrounding arm tissue rather than entering her bloodstream directly.

He said: “She very likely has a significant burn on one or both arms from the pentobarbital that I expect went into the tissues,”

Randy Spivey, Christa Pike’s attorney said there was “blistering and burning” around areas of Pike’s arms where she was injected.

During the attempted execution, witnesses described a scene of chaos in the chamber with a veteran reporter “at a loss for words”.

Dr. Zivot said Pike may now require intense skin grafts and cardiac care.

He said: “She very likely has a significant burn on one or both arms from the pentobarbital that I expect went into the tissues and not into the circulation.

“That will require care for a period of time.

“She might have a weakened heart now.”

Highlighting Tennessee’s history of failed execution attempts, Dr. Zivot expressed shock at the state’s willingness to continue to press on doing “something that they’re not able to safely and reliably do.”

Pike’s failed execution was the second time this year Tennessee officials were unable to put a death row inmate to death.

Tony Carruthers’ execution was abandoned in May after officials were unable to establish the necessary IV access.

Dr. Zivot went on to explain, a person can, in effect, be too sick to be executed.

He said: “So if Christa Pike’s health should be such a thing that it can never be restored to some degree… then she may not face [execution] again.”

“If the death penalty goes wrong, which it has done in this case, it becomes the duty of the state to restore the prisoner to health. So they’re bound to do it,” Dr. Zivot continued.

The full effects of the botched execution are yet to be seen but it could result in permanent, disabling injuries or death.

As of Thursday evening Pike is still alive but unconscious and in a critical condition, receiving life-saving medical care.

Randy Spivey, slammed the state of Tennessee for its botched execution, which he called “inefficient, cruel, and torturous.”

Spivey said during a press conference: “Christa is alive. We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health.”

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

She was just 18 when she killed Slemmer, a fellow student at a job-training program in Knoxville, on January 12, 1995.

She planned the deadly attack alongside then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, as they beat, tortured and killed the 19-year-old.

Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area before using a box cutter and large chunk of asphalt to attack her.

Prosecutors said she feared Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.

Shipp carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into Slemmer’s body.

Shipp was just 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Pike was sentenced to death and has never denied the killing but said she was “a mentally ill 18-year-old kid”.

Since being jailed in 1996, Christa Pike has been kept in solitary confinement for 29 years.