CHRISTA Pike may have survived two rounds of lethal injection drugs because of a bizarre paradox that saw the drug fail to kill her while potentially helping protect her brain, a medical expert has claimed.
Death row inmate Pike, 50, was administered pentobarbital during her botched execution in Tennessee before the procedure was called off.
Her attorneys have since revealed she is now awake, talking and walking after spending days unconscious and on a ventilator in the hospital.
The U.S. Sun spoke exclusively to Dr. Kenneth Katz, a medical toxicologist who has published case reports involving two women who survived severe pentobarbital poisoning, including a 94-year-old woman who spent days unresponsive before fully recovering.
Katz believes the execution team may have blown Pike’s veins, causing pentobarbital to leak into the tissue of her arms and form what he described as a localized “poison depot.”
Instead of the lethal drug rapidly flooding her bloodstream, he said it may then have been absorbed more slowly into her system — potentially helping explain why she became profoundly unconscious but survived.
And the pentobarbital that did reach her bloodstream may have had another unexpected effect — suppressing her brain’s demand for oxygen and potentially protecting it while she was unconscious.
“It appeared that both of her forearms, her arms were swollen and injured, probably because the drug had extravasated or leaked either from a blown vein or the catheter didn’t function properly,” Katz said.
“So I think what happened was she got some of the dose in the vein, probably, because she was comatose at that what it appeared to be, but probably not enough to be lethal,” he said.
The pentobarbital that leaked into her arms may then have remained trapped in the surrounding tissue rather than immediately circulating through her body.
“The drug is an alkaline drug, so it can cause swelling, burning, inflammation, pain,” Katz said.
“It sort of acted like a little depot in the tissue. The paradox is that [the drug] can actually make that tissue less demanding of oxygen.
“It’s almost neuroprotective at the same time.”
Katz said that creates a remarkable paradox in cases of severe pentobarbital poisoning, where the drug can profoundly suppress the body without necessarily causing permanent neurological damage if the dose is survived.
“So you have a drug that in extreme amounts can obviously kill you,” he said.
“But at the same time, if it’s not to that degree, it can cause coma but also be neuroprotective at the same time.”
The 94-year-old patient Katz studied had ingested pentobarbital alongside another barbiturate and became completely unresponsive before waking on the third day with no memory of what had happened.
She was discharged from hospital 11 days later.
Katz said the drug’s effects can mimic the signs of brain death, despite a patient later regaining consciousness and neurological function.
That could shed light on what happened in Pike’s case, after her lawyers believed she was brain dead and expected her to be taken off life support before she suddenly woke up and began talking.
Asked if he thinks Pike could eventually walk out of the hospital, Katz said, “If she received adequate ventilation, oxygenation, in theory, I would not be stunned if she has a complete neurologic recovery.”
But he said the crucial question for Pike’s long-term recovery is whether her brain was deprived of oxygen at any point during the failed execution.
“The brain does not tolerate that for very long, for only a few minutes or so,” he said. “And that can cause what we call anoxic brain injury.”
Katz said doctors can use MRI scans to look for evidence of damage caused by a lack of oxygen, while Pike now being awake, speaking and beginning to walk are encouraging signs.
The other case Katz studied involved a 48-year-old woman who injected a veterinary euthanasia solution containing pentobarbital.
Discussing the case, Katz said, “One woman was out cold, out in a coma for several days, and then just woke up and we took the tube out, we extubated.
“She didn’t recall all the events, but she understood generally what had happened.”
The woman also suffered severe damage to her arm where the drug was injected and required emergency surgery, but ultimately woke up neurologically normal and recovered.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17117688/christa-pike-brain-dead-to-walking-talking-pentobarbital/
