911 recordings show confusion delayed emergency help for Christa Pike after Tennessee's failed lethal injection

What happened

Emergency help for Christa Pike was slowed by confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials after her failed lethal injection last month, according to 911 dispatch recordings reviewed by The Associated Press. PBS NewsHour carried the AP report. CBS News reported that the recordings were released Monday.

The recordings show responders and officials spending critical minutes trying to determine whether a request for help from the execution chamber was genuine. According to both outlets, it was about half an hour before prison officials confirmed the call was legitimate and began letting responders through the gates.

Inside the 911 timeline

The first call at 8:40 p.m.

The first call came in at 8:40 p.m. on Sept. 30. According to a transcript released by the Nashville Department of Emergency Communications and cited by CBS News, the caller said 10 grams of pentobarbital had been given about an hour earlier and that "The person is not yet deceased." The caller asked for an ambulance. The dispatcher then asked for a verification code, which the caller did not have, CBS reported.

CBS News reported that the emergency communications agency also released calls with the Nashville Fire Department, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Tennessee Highway Patrol Dispatch and Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control as it tried to confirm the emergency at Riverbend Prison.

Told it was a false call

At 9:03 p.m., an unidentified person on the recordings cited supervisors and said "we have been informed it is a false call," adding, "There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison," according to the AP. Four minutes later, a responder reported that "Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it's real and demanding us to go in." The people at the gate said they were some sort of state official, the responder said.

In a recording time-stamped at 9:07 p.m., Central Control representatives told responders they "would have been the ones to call in and they did not make that call," CBS News reported.

Clearance at 9:11 p.m.

A few minutes later, Central Control confirmed the call was legitimate. Responders were cleared to enter at 9:11 p.m., according to both reports.

Pike's condition and what remains unknown

From a ventilator back to prison

Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital. The state was attempting to execute her for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. At one point, Pike was on a ventilator, and her attorneys did not expect her to survive. Her attorneys later said she woke up and began talking and walking with assistance.

She has since been discharged and is back at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women's prison where she was housed for 30 years, the outlets reported. We covered that move in our earlier report on Pike's return to prison after the failed execution.

No official explanation yet

The Tennessee Department of Correction has not said what went wrong. Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream, according to the AP. CBS News said it had asked the department for comment.

Why the case stands out

Pike is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center, as cited by CBS News. The execution went forward after the Supreme Court denied a last-minute effort to stop it. She was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820, CBS reported.

CBS News also reported that it is still unclear what will happen with Pike going forward. More national stories are collected on our Nation page.

What to watch next

• Whether the Tennessee Department of Correction explains what went wrong in the attempted execution.
• What happens next in Pike's case, which CBS News described as still unclear.
• Any response from the Department of Correction to CBS News' request for comment on the 911 recordings.