Newly released 911 calls show that prison officials neglected to provide basic details when calling for emergency care for Christa Pike after Tennessee officials botched her execution last week.

Emergency dispatchers were left scrambling after the prison official who made the first 911 call, roughly an hour after the lethal injection process began, was unable to provide the code for the prison facility, despite it being needed for confirmation by dispatchers.

This caused emergency care for Pike to be delayed by roughly half an hour as the chemicals wreaked havoc on her body. Her lawyer, at one point, made a call saying that she needed “immediate life-saving care” from first responders.

The revelations raise further questions about Tennessee prison officials’ protocol for executions. Witnesses present for the execution attempt on September 30 said that it was apparent during the procedure that officials were not prepared for the injections to fail, despite the high rate of failure for lethal injections.

The calls were released by Nashville’s Department of Emergency Communications (DEC) after information requests by news outlets, and posted online by the Nashville Banner. A transcript of the first call shows the caller, whose identity is redacted, being repeatedly asked for the verification code for the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, which is needed for emergency dispatch to the prison. The prison official said they don’t know the code.

“I don’t have a code,” the caller said. When the dispatcher asked for a callback number, they gave the number for a cell phone, the transcript shows. The caller also seemed unsure about Pike’s age when asked, saying, “I believe 50.”

After that call, DEC placed a call to the Metro Fire Dispatch, where both the emergency dispatcher and the metro fire employee shared disbelief that the prison official didn’t know the procedure.

“How do they not have a code?” the fire dispatcher asked. “There’s nobody there that knows the process?”

“I guess since this is a special case, they may not know. But I don’t know why they don’t have the code…. [Riverbend] is the one place where you definitely need a code,” the emergency dispatcher said.

The lack of a code led officials to be unclear about whether or not the call was legitimate. The call also did not originate from Central Control for the state’s Department of Correction, as it would normally, leading to further confusion. As a result, dispatchers began reaching out to other prison officials in attempts to verify the call, while also trying to triangulate first responders.

Central Control was initially not even aware that that first call had happened. An employee told dispatchers not to send an emergency response because they “didn’t call anybody” and “would have been the one to call you guys.”

In another call, the DEC dispatcher expressed that they were “trying to find out if this is an actual thing that is happening … or if this is someone that is just basically prank calling or like swatting us.”

After the flurry of phone calls, and as a first responder was waiting at the gate of the prison to enter the facility, a Central Control employee was eventually able to confirm the legitimacy of the request — roughly half an hour after the initial 911 call. Medics later made sure to confirm that the prison officials knew where they were transporting Pike in the ambulance.

Pike was discharged from the hospital back to prison last week. She was initially unconscious and in critical condition after the execution, as the physician administering the procedure was seemingly unable to find a vein after going through at least seven needles. Ultimately, her lawyers said, they probably injected the drug into the tissue rather than into her bloodstream, causing her to be the first known person to survive a lethal injection attempt after the drugs had already been put into her body.

Pike has since regained consciousness, regained movement in her arms, and has been able to walk with some assistance. The horrific ordeal has sparked renewed calls for the abolition of the death penalty.

Despite this, state officials have left the possibility of attempting to execute Pike for a second time open, her lawyers said.

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