911 calls show confusion delayed aid after Christa Pike execution failed
What's new: Dispatchers spent minutes verifying the prison's request, and EMS waited for police before entering Riverbend.
Newly released 911 calls show that emergency help was delayed after Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived a lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Sept. 30. In the first call, a person at the prison told dispatchers that 10 grams of pentobarbital had been administered about an hour earlier and Pike was still alive, unconscious and breathing with difficulty. Dispatchers then worked to verify the request after the caller could not provide a confirming code. Around 9:08 p.m., Pike attorney Kelly Gleason separately called 911 seeking immediate life-saving care. Metro Nashville personnel later contacted Tennessee Highway Patrol so EMS crews at the prison could get inside with a trooper present.