Tennessee inmate Christa Pike was released from the hospital and is back in prison more than a week after she survived the state's attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her attorneys said Saturday.
The big picture: The failed execution was unprecedented. Pike, 50, got two doses of the deadly drug pentobarbital on Sept. 30 and was still breathing.
- The state called an ambulance and Pike got life-saving care at a local hospital.
- Pike's attorneys said they believed she was "brain dead" and on life support. It shocked them and her doctors when she woke up and began talking earlier this week.
What they're saying: Pike's attorneys said she had returned to Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she had been housed for decades.
- "She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances," the attorneys said in a statement.
- "She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery."
Catch up quick: Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent review to determine how Pike was able to survive the attempted lethal injection. Another execution set for December was called off while that investigation plays out.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.