Christa Pike unconscious and placed on ventilator after two failed execution attempts

| Live News reporter Published October 2, 2026 8:47pm Updated October 2, 2026 8:47pm Christa Pike was rushed to hospital after two failed execution attempts (Picture: Tennessee Department of Corrections) Hospital staff have been working to save Christa Pike’s life after two failed attempts to execute her, lawyers have said. On Wednesday, two doses of lethal injection pentobarbital were administered, but Pike remained alive. She was taken to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, where, as of Thursday night, she was placed on a ventilator and was unconscious. In a court filing today, her attorneys said they believe problems with the IV lines caused the fatal drug to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream. They wrote: ‘Apparently, at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body.’ Rather than ‘remedying this failure’, they said, they administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes. As both sides continue demanding answers, the state’s governor has ordered an independent review. Pike was given the death penalty in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, then aged 19. She was to become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years. Instead, she’s become the first person ever to survive two lethal injections. Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here. For more stories like this, check our news page. Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here. News Updates Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.