Christa Pike has a  long road to recovery  after Tennessee's failed execution attempt that left her unconscious and on life support for six days, her lawyer, Randy Spivey said at a news conference Wednesday.

In a miraculous development, Pike awoke and started speaking on Tuesday, but she is far from out of the woods. Spivey described several medical issues, including a blood clot in one arm, pneumonia, the inability to swallow and no function in her arms.

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 Neither we nor Christa have even begun to process what this means for her mental health,  Spivey said.

Last week, Pike became the first person to survive two doses of a lethal injection after Tennessee failed to execute her for murdering her classmate three decades ago when she was 18.


Doctors have told NBC News that it appeared most of the pentobarbital - the drug used in the lethal injection - entered her arm rather than her bloodstream, having enough power to put her to sleep but not to stop her heart or slow her breathing.

Pike, 50, was in the hospital, unconscious and on a ventilator, for six days when her lawyers said Tuesday she had woken up and was speaking.

As of Monday night, Spivey said it was his understanding that Pike was brain dead. Life support was supposed to be removed on Tuesday, he said.

 But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team, and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking,  Spivey said.  I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning. 

While Spivey said he was not in the room when Pike woke up, he said the first thing she said was,  Where am I and who are you? 

Pike is angry and confused, and wanted to know what happened to her, Spivey said. He said she asked about her team and about the victim's family.

Still,  She is very aware that the state tried to execute her,  Spivey said.

Spivey said that Pike was cooperative during the execution attempt, even helping the execution team

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