The emergency response to Christa Pike’s botched execution in Tennessee was delayed by approximately 30 minutes due to confusion over the authenticity of a 911 call, according to recordings of dispatch and radio communications released this week. The execution attempt took place on September 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

The first 911 call requesting an ambulance was placed at 8:40 p.m., roughly an hour after lethal injection procedures began. However, the caller, who was inside the prison but not from the central control of the Tennessee Department of Correction, was unable to provide the usual security verification code required for emergency calls from the facility. This led to repeated efforts by dispatchers to confirm whether the call was legitimate, involving multiple phone calls to prison officials and supervisors.

Throughout the next half hour, emergency responders were told at least twice by prison staff that the call was false and that no medical assistance was needed. One dispatcher reported that supervisors at the Department of Correction had classified the initial call as a prank. At 9:03 p.m., a dispatcher told responders that the call was not genuine, and a prison official indicated that no one from their facility had made the call.

The situation changed around 9:07 p.m. when a state official outside the prison gate confirmed the legitimacy of the emergency and directed responders to enter. Moments later, prison officials formally verified the request, allowing emergency personnel to gain access. At 9:08 p.m., Kelly Gleason, one of Pike’s attorneys, placed another 911 call after being informed by a witness that Pike was still alive and breathing. She told dispatchers that Pike required immediate lifesaving care.

Pike was subsequently transported to a nearby hospital, from which she was discharged and returned to prison. Pike, 50, had been sentenced to death for her role in the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. She is the first person in Tennessee to survive an execution attempt involving two doses of the drug pentobarbital.

The delay and confusion surrounding the call have renewed scrutiny of Tennessee’s execution protocols, which critics say are vague and do not account for complications during an execution. Medical experts involved in Pike’s defense had warned that her small veins and underlying medical conditions could complicate the lethal injection, but these concerns were reportedly disregarded by officials.

Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist who consulted for Pike’s legal team, noted that the state’s protocols lacked contingencies for a failed execution and that prison officials seemed unprepared for such an outcome. It remains unclear from the released audio whether resuscitative equipment, such as oxygen, was readily available at the execution chamber or if Pike received any medical treatment before an ambulance arrived.

Following the incident, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee temporarily suspended executions in the state and ordered an independent review of the events. The episode has raised broader questions about how prisons nationwide prepare for and manage potential complications during executions, as well as the healthcare rights of death row inmates in these situations. The Tennessee Department of Correction has declined to comment on the communication breakdown but has previously stated that execution procedures were followed according to their protocol.