CHRISTa PIKE WAS DECLARED BRAIN DEAD — THEN SHE WOKE UP AND STARTED TALKING

In a stunning turn of events following a botched execution in Tennessee, death row inmate Christa Pike was reportedly believed to be brain dead and expected to be taken off life support — only to regain consciousness the next day and begin speaking.

Pike’s attorney, Randy Spivey, said he was informed on the night of Monday, October 5, that his client was considered brain dead and that doctors planned to remove her from life support the following day.

But on Tuesday morning, everything changed.

According to Spivey, Pike unexpectedly woke up and began talking, shocking those around her. Her first reported words were reportedly questions about where she was and who the people around her were.

“I don’t have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning,” Spivey said, describing the development as completely unexpected.

Pike had been hospitalized after surviving a failed execution on September 30. She had received two doses of pentobarbital during the lethal injection procedure but remained alive afterward.

Her condition, however, remains extremely serious.

Her attorneys say Pike is suffering from pneumonia, has a blood clot in her arm and remains unable to swallow. She has reportedly been unable to eat for about a week. She also has limited movement in her arms and remains confused at times.

Despite her condition, Spivey said Pike appears to remember at least parts of what happened during the attempted execution. He said she is aware that the state tried to execute her.

The extraordinary development has now triggered a legal battle over what happened inside Tennessee’s execution chamber.

During a court hearing on Wednesday, Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence connected to the failed execution. The order includes medical equipment, IV lines, needles, surveillance footage, photographs, handwritten notes, emails, encrypted communications and the procedures used to prepare for the lethal injection.

Pike’s attorneys have also accused correctional officials of restricting their access to their client and keeping her shackled to her hospital bed despite concerns raised by medical staff. State officials denied that her lawyers were being improperly denied access.

The case has raised serious questions about how the execution was carried out and what caused the procedure to fail.

Pike was sentenced to death after being convicted in the 1995 torture and murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. She was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in roughly two centuries.

For now, however, her future remains uncertain.

Pike is still hospitalized and faces a long and difficult recovery. It is also unclear whether Tennessee will attempt to carry out another execution if she eventually becomes medically capable of facing one.

A case that was expected to end inside an execution chamber has instead opened a new chapter — one involving unanswered medical questions, a growing legal battle and a woman who unexpectedly woke up when her lawyers believed she would never regain consciousness.

Source: PEOPLE