Arabic version: مكالمات الطوارئ تكشف تأخيرات بعد محاولة إعدام بايك

According to BBC News, newly released emergency calls following the failed execution of US death row inmate Christa Pike show that confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials delayed emergency assistance.

The recordings were first obtained by the Associated Press and were released by the Nashville Department of Emergency Communications. They include calls between the agency and other departments, including police and highway patrol, concerning a request for help in the execution chamber at Riverbend Prison.

Minutes passed while officials and responders sought to establish whether the emergency request was genuine. In one call, a dispatcher says they were trying to determine whether an ambulance and police assistance were needed, or whether the report could be a prank call or “swatting”.

Another recording captures Kelly Gleason, Pike’s defence attorney, asking for help. “She is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care,” Gleason says in the call.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, carried out with her then-boyfriend. She survived two injections of the drug pentobarbital on 30 September and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.