New details of IV team’s attempts to find a vein shared by Pike’s lawyer ‘shocked and disturbed’ practitioners

Medical experts have expressed shock at the apparent incompetence shown by Tennessee’s execution team during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike, the prisoner who survived a normally fatal dose of pentobarbital, which they say would be considered medical malpractice in any other setting.

New details emerged on Thursday of how Tennessee’s intravenous (IV) team struggled for almost an hour to set up a line into Pike’s arms through which she would be administered the fatal dose of sedative. A blow-by-blow account was released in legal proceedings from Pike’s lawyer, Randy Spivey, who was present inside the death chamber at her 30 September failed execution.

The technical procedures attempted by the four unidentified members of the IV team as they tried to find a vein, as described by Spivey, provoked alarm among medical experts. They said the standards applied appeared to fall glaringly short of anything that would be deemed acceptable in a medical environment.

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[–] 18 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Can't even provide enough funding for legalized murder while we still have a barbaric death penalty.

And keep in mind, the team struggled so much because they have to find medical staff who are willing to murder someone, to cause harm, because that violates the Hippocratic oath they all take. So most of the time the medical staff aren't qualified individuals, it's whoever will accept the meager pay to murder someone for the state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjawA93_jAs

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  • [–] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Phlebotomists don't take oaths but they didn't even know to look for one willing to do it.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    phlebs do require certifications/license, they dont want to get that revoked too.also phlebs are wanted in alot of medical professions, so they arnt exactly large number of them jobless because it requires no college classes like most "Techs".

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