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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — <\/span>Emergency help for Christa Pike<\/a> was delayed by confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials following her failed execution last month, according to 911 dispatch recordings.<\/p>\n The recordings, obtained Monday by The Associated Press through a public records request, show that precious minutes elapsed as officials and responders tried to figure out whether a request for emergency help in the execution chamber was legitimate.<\/p>\n The initial 911 call came in at 8:40 p.m. on Sept. 30, just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection got underway<\/a>. But the caller was unable to provide a code that would help verify the legitimacy of the request.<\/p>\n \u201cPer supervisors here at the DEC (Department of Emergency Communications) we have been informed it is a false call,\u201d a dispatcher says at 9:03 p.m. \u201cThere is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until about half an hour after the initial call \u2014 close to 9:11 p.m. \u2014 that prison officials affirmed it was real and began letting responders through the gates.<\/p>\n Neither the Tennessee Department of Correction nor Pike\u2019s legal team immediately responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses<\/a> of pentobarbital<\/a> as the state tried to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 when she tortured and killed Slemmer with her boyfriend, becoming one of the youngest women to be sentenced to death.<\/p>\n State protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first doesn\u2019t result in death, but it doesn\u2019t spell out what to do if an inmate survives the second injection. <\/p>\n The first 911 call, released only as a written transcript, reported that Pike was unconscious and not breathing normally.<\/p>\n After being taken to a hospital, Pike was on a ventilator for several days. At one point, her attorneys did not expect her to survive. She regained consciousness last Tuesday and began talking limitedly and walking with assistance, they said. Pike was discharged<\/a> from the hospital and returned to the women\u2019s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her lawyers said Saturday.<\/p>\n The initial call came from a person whose name and title were redacted. The caller told a dispatcher that they were at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution where they had tried to execute someone, but she was still alive. <\/p>\n As emergency responders worked to verify the call, they were in touch with representatives of the prison\u2019s Central Control, who said they \u201cwould have been the ones to call in” and they “did not make that call,\u201d according to a recording time-stamped at 9:07 p.m.<\/p>\n Around the same time, a first responder could be heard over the radio saying, \u201cSomebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it\u2019s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.\u201d<\/p>\n Central Control confirmed the call was legitimate a few minutes later, clearing the way for responders to enter through the gates at about 9:11 p.m. An AP reporter witnessed an ambulance and fire trucks pull up to the building inside the prison campus at 9:14 p.m.<\/p>\n At 9:34 p.m., as medics were transporting Pike to a hospital, one asked dispatch to make sure the prison knew where they were taking her.<\/p>\n “Just \u2019cause there\u2019s been so much other confusion, I want to make sure they are aware of this,\u201d the responder said.<\/p>\n The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released with some redactions the batch of audio recordings from dispatchers. Police said the audio from the first 911 call was exempt from public disclosure under state law.<\/p>\n Two subsequent emergency calls were made, including one at 9:08 p.m. by one of Pike\u2019s attorneys, Kelly Gleason.<\/p>\n \u201cMy client, Christa Gail Pike, is undergoing a state execution. She has completed the stages of the protocol and last we knew from the attorney who is present, she is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care,\u201d Gleason said on the call.<\/p>\n The Tennessee Department of Correction has not said what went wrong in the attempted execution. Gov. Bill Lee paused further execution attempts<\/a> pending a review. It\u2019s unclear whether the state will try executing Pike again.<\/p>\n Medical experts have raised a few possibilities that could explain how Pike was able to survive, including potential drug quality issues and the placement of IV lines causing the drug to pool in her tissue.<\/p>\n Before the execution attempt, Pike\u2019s attorneys told courts and prison officials that she had a blood disorder that could cause clotting at injection sites.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Johnson reported from Seattle and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n